1 

: 

A 


^^6/CALSi^^ 


BX  9225  .C4  W35 
Walker,  Norman  L. 
Thomas  Chalmers 


"'  ^v^ 


THOMAS    CHALMEES. 


Thomas   Chalmers 


ins  LIFE  AND  ITS  LESSONS. 


EEV.   NORMAN    L.    WALKER, 

AUTHOR   OF    "ROBERT   BUCHANAN,    D.D.,    AN    ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY, 
"  OUR  CHURCH   HERITAGE,"    ETC. 


bonbon: 


T.    NELSON    AND    SONS,    PATERNOSTER   ROW. 

EDINBURGH;    AND   NEW   YOKK. 


1880. 


'}§>xdixcc. 


OR  the  whole  story  of  the  life  of  Chalmers 
the  reader  must  be  referred  to  the  every- 
way admirable  Biography  by  Dr.  Hanna. 
The  only  drawback  to  that  work  is  its  large- 
ness. It  could  not  have  been  made  less,  indeed, 
without  doing  injustice  to  its  subject;  and  it  is  a 
great  thing  that  we  have  so  complete  a  record  of 
such  a  remarkable  history.  But  there  is  a  demand 
in  these  days  for  compendious  information  about 
everything,  and  there  seems  a  special  propriety  in 
supplying  such  information  about  Chalmers  during 
the  present  year.  The  volume  now  published  is  not 
an  abridgment  of  the  standard  Biography.  It  is  a 
strictly  independent  work.  But  the  writer  has 
throughout  followed,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Dr.  Hanna,  and  has  quoted  from  him 
frequently.     When  any  sentence  occurs  in  the  sue- 


VI  PREFACE. 

ceeding  pages  within  marks  of  quotation,  but  without 
special  acknowledgment,  it  is  to  be  understood  as 
taken  from  his  book.  Our  object  has  been  to  give 
a  bird's-eye  view  of  a  career  which  may  safely  be 
called  that  of  the  greatest  Scotchman  of  the  century. 
The  story  in  itself  reads  like  a  romance,  it  is  so  full 
of  stirring  incident.  But  it  has  a  public  as  well  as 
a  private  and  personal  value;  for  the  life  stretches 
over  a  memorable  era  in  our  history,  and  we  may  all 
learn  lessons  from  what  it  tells  of  the  past,  for  our 
guidance  in  the  present  and  the  future. 

NORMAN  L.  WALKER. 

February  1880. 


®"0n  tents. 


FROM  HIS  BIBTH  TO  HIS  IXTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING, 

FUOJI  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS   INTELLECT  TO  HIS  CONVERSION 

FROM  HIS  CONVERSION  TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW, 

THE  TEON,       ... 

ST.   JOHN'S,     ... 

ST.   ANDREWS, 

FIR.ST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH,     ... 

EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY, 

FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH, 

ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISEST.\BLISHED  CHURCH, 

LAST  YEARS, 

A  BACKLOOK, 


9 
15 
36 

48 

67 

78 

94 

107 

123 

146 

163 

17i 


THOMAS    CHALMEES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM  HIS  BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING. 

IHE  German  schoolmaster  who  every  morning 
bowed  so  respectfully  to  his  pupils,  on  the 
principle,  as  he  explained,  that  he  saw  among 
^  them  the  burgomasters  and  town-councillors  of 
the  future,  was,  I  daresay,  something  of  a  time  server. 
Yet  there  was  some  sense  and  shrewdness  in  the  practice 
which  he  followed.  For  every  new  generation  contributes 
its  own  contingent  of  leaders,  and  nobody  can  tell  in  ad- 
vance in  what  quarter  these  may  appear. 

Indeed,  genius  has  an  odd  habit  of  turning  up  where  it 
is  not  looked  for  at  all.  When  you  want  flowers  of  more 
than  ordinary  beauty,  you  seek  them  in  the  garden,  of 
course  ;  you  know  that  such  things  are  to  be  found,  not  on 
the  common,  where  they  are  exposed  to  every  wind  that 
blows,  but  in  places  where  the  soil  is  good,  and  where 
they  have  had  the  benefit  of  care  and  culture.  It  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  a  like  law  should  rule  in  human  life; 
— that  is,  that  great  men  should  always  rise  in  localities 
where  the  outward  conditions  are  favourable  ;  in  cities,  for 


10      FROM  HIS   BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING. 

example,  where  civilization  has  been  carried  to  the  highest 
possible  pitch ;  and  in  families,  where  all  the  appliances  of 
a  high-class  education  have  been  going  on  for  several  gen- 
erations. But  in  point  of  fact  such  a  law  is  not  found  to 
be  in  operation.  Greatness  does  not  run  in  the  grooves 
we  make  for  it.  In  quite  unexpected  places,  and  at  quite 
unexpected  times,  the  quality  appears  which  raises  a  man 
above  his  fellows ;  and  the  world  recognizes  it  as  some- 
thing which  it  cannot  manufacture. 

And  there  is  one  good  and  ob\ious  reason  for  the  un- 
certainty in  which  we  are  kept  about  this  matter.  The 
gift  of  a  truly  great  man  is  the  very  greatest  which  can  be 
bestowed  upon  a  generation.  The  discovery  of  a  gold  or 
diamond  mine  must  ever  be  a  notable  event  in  any  country's 
history.  It  tends  to  increase  its  population,  and  to  add 
in  many  ways  to  its  material  comforts.  But  wealth  of  that 
sort  has  its  drawbacks,  and  neither  California  nor  Australia 
has  been,  on  the  whole,  much  the  better  for  its  riches.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  however,  about  the  permanent  benefits  con- 
ferred by  a  man  who  has  at  once  genius  and  grace.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  of  him  that  he  contributes  to  the  en- 
largement of  even  the  temporal  resources  of  the  community 
to  which  he  belongs ;  for  when  people  become  more  intelli- 
gent, and  honest,  and  industrious,  and  frugal,  they  come 
to  have  what  is  really  equivalent  to  gold.  In  any  case, 
by  making  his  age  more  virtuous,  he  makes  it  happier. 
Such  a  man,  therefore,  is  a  great  gift  of  God.  And  it  is 
right  that  that  fact  should  be  rendered  conspicuous.  For 
this  reason  we  are  always  kept  in  doubt  as  to  where  our 
next  luminary  is  to  appear.  That  we  may  realize  the  ex- 
istence of  a  divine  government,  God  keeps  the  reins  in 
his  own  hand,  and  sends  us  leaders  as  he  thinks  best. 
We  cannot  make  them.    We  cannot  command  their  appear- 


FROM  HIS  BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING.       11 

ance  when  we  please.  And  when  one  comes,  we  are  bound 
to  regard  the  circumstance  as  a  new  and  special  act  of 
divine  interposition  in  the  affairs  of  men. 

It  is  no  disparagement  to  the  old  Fife  burgh  which  gave 
birth  to  the  greatest  Scotchman  of  the  century  to  say,  that  if 
the  age  had  begun  to  speculate  beforehand  as  to  the  quar- 
ter in  which  its  next  hero  was  likeliest  to  appear,  it  would 
not  have  thought  of  Anstruther.  There  were  then  in  exist- 
ence Scottish  cities  of  the  highest  reputation  for  intelli- 
gence toward  which  the  eye  would  have  turned  much  more 
naturally.  And  so  with  the  family  from  which  Chalmers 
sprang.  He  had  a  most  respectable  ancestry.  Among  his 
"  forebears  "  were  ministers  (one  or  two  of  them  doctors  of 
divinity),  and  even  lairds.  But  if  a  visitor  had  had  paraded 
before  him  the  fourteen  children  of  Mr.  John  Chalmers, 
"  Dyer,  Shipowner,  and  General  INIerchant,"  and  had  been 
told  that  the  sixth  of  the  number  was  destined  to  make  his  1 
mark  upon  the  period,— that  his  admiring  fellow-country-  \ 
men  would  erect  his  statue  in  one  of  the  streets  of  their 
capital, — and  that  the  centenary  of  his  birth  would  be  cele- 
brated as  an  incident  of  national  interest  and  importance, 
— he  would  have  felt  probably  as  much  surprise  as  Samuel 
did  when  the  ruddy  youth,  who  had  been  hastily  sum- 
moned from  the  sheepfolds,  was  introduced  to  him  as  the 
chosen  one  who  was  to  be  king  over  God's  people  Israel. 

Every  American  citizen,  they  say,  cherishes  the  hope 
that  his  first-born  may  become  President  of  the  United 
States.  Our  aspirations  in  this  country  are  more  modest. 
We  allow  ourselves  to  dream  in  like  circumstances  only  of 
"a  peerage  or  Westminster  Abbey."  But  in  neither  case 
is  the  imagination  absolutely  unwarrantable.  It  is  just  as 
true  in  ordinary  life  as  it  is  in  Scripture  history.     When- 


12     FROM  HIS  BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING. 

ever  there  is  a  work  to  do  God  finds  one  to  do  it ;  and 
there  is,  so  far  as  we  can  tell,  an  equal  chance  of  the  doer 
being  discovered  in  town  or  country,  in  the  family  of  a 
rich  man,  or  in  that  of  one  who  has  a  struggle  to  main- 
tain for  bread. 

The  facts  connected  with  the  earliest  chapter  in  the  life 
of  Chalmers  can  be  stated  in  a  sentence  or  two.  He  was 
born  on  the  17th  of  March  1780,  and  went  to  school  at 
'  the  early  age  of  three — chiefly  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  a 
nurse,  who  did  much  to  make  his  home-life  miserable.  In 
November  1791,  before  he  was  twelve,  he  was  enrolled  as 
a  student  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews ;  and  he  had 
been  at  college  for  two  full  sessions  before  he  wakened  up 
to  the  consciousness  of  possessing  those  intellectual  powers 
in  the  employment  of  which  he  was  to  find  in  his  after 
history  so  much  enjoyment.  The  date  of  this  memorable 
experience  was  the  winter  of  1793-4 — years  which,  we 
cannot  forget,  made  the  birth-time  of  modern  Europe. 

It  is  natural  to  search  through  this  first  stage  of  his  life 
in  order  to  ascertain  if  there  was  anything  in  it  to  show 
that  the  boy  was  father  of  the  man.  There  is  not  much  to 
tell,  however,  of  special  significance.  That  he  was  strong, 
merry,  generous,  fond  of  play,  and  good  at  it,  can  be 
aflBrmed  of  many  who  never  afterwards  became  anything 
in  particular.  Nor  can  much  stress  be  laid  upon  the 
circumstance  that  at  a  very  early  period  he  resolved  to 
be  a  minister.  There  was  much  in  his  surrovmdings  to 
suggest  such  a  thought.  His  parents  were  pious  people, 
and  were,  no  doubt,  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  inhabi- 
tants of  various  adjoinuag  manses.  And,  besides,  the 
time  was  when  Scotch  boys  who  had  any  thought  in 
them  were  apt  to  turn  to  the  pulpit  almost  instinctively. 


FROM  HIS  BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING.      13 

But  a  few  other  things  were  noted  which  did  seem  to 
contain  in  them  a  more  certain  prophecy  as  to  the  future. 
One  was  the  extraordinarily  keen  interest  which  he  so  soon 
manifested  in  the  PilgnHL?  Progress  and  in  the  Pictorial 
Bible.  There  was  a  third  book  which  also  took  his  fancy. 
This  was  a  sort  of  romance  ascribed  to  Bishop  Berkeley, 
and  describing  marvellous  adventures  among  the  Algerine 
pirates.  But  Scripture  scenes  laid  the  strongest  hold  upon 
his  imagination  ;  and,  in  illustration  of  this,  it  is  told  that 
when  one  evening  he  was  missed  after  dark,  he  was  found 
alone  in  the  nursery,  pacing  up  and  down,  and  repeating 
to  himself  in  an  excited  way,  "  0  my  son  Absalom,  0 
Absalom,  my  son,  my  son  ! "  He  was  then  only  three  ' 
years  of  age.  This  love  for  the  Pictorial  Bible  remained 
with  him  through  life,  and  Kitto's  edition  became  his  un- 
failing companion  through  all  his  very  precious  devotional 
readings. 

One  reason  why  Chalmers  was  so  little  stirred  during 
his  first  two  years  at  college  was  that  his  preliminary  school 
education  had  been  so  imperfect.  He  had  been  under  two 
masters  in  Anstruther,  neither  of  whom  seems  to  have 
possessed  remarkable  gifts ;  but  it  was  not  their  fault 
altogether  that  when  he  went  to  the  university  he  could 
not  spell  his  own  tongue.  This  was  owing  mainly  to  his 
own  idleness.  A  boy  of  twelve  ought  not,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, to  have  been  made  a  student  of,  but  the  step 
taken  in  his  case  was  particularly  unreasonable.  For  he  \ 
had  given  no  evidence  beforehand  of  having  acquired  \ 
studious  habits  ;  and  in  the  end  his  friends  ought  to  have 
felt  thankful  that  no  worse  thing  happened  to  him  than 
this,  that  he  practically  missed  the  prelections  of  Dr. 
Hunter,  one  of  the  best  classical  scholars  of  the  day,  and 
spent  the  greater  part  of  his  time  on  the  links,  expending 


14      FROM  HIS  BIRTH  TO  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  AWAKENING. 

his  superfluous  energy  on  the  game  of  golf,  or  seeking 
occasional  relief  from  that  in  the  still  more  exciting  sport 
of  football. 

And  yet,  one  cannot  on  the  whole  regret  that  his  life 
had  such  a  beginning.  Infant  prodigies  have  not  usually 
developed  into  much.  Chalmers  would  never  have  become 
the  man  he  was  if  he  had  had  no  genuine  boyhood — if  our 
first  pictures  of  him  had  shown  a  youth  eschewing  play, 
poring  ceaselessly  over  books,  and  growing  prematurely 
old  with  the  pale  and  sickly  hue  of  overthought.  What 
distinguished  him  in  after  life  was  this,  that  he  was  so 
ma.nly  and  whole-souled ;  and  we  do  not  doubt  that  what 
helped  to  make  him  so,  was  the  free,  outgoing,  open-air, 
unconstrained  habits  of  his  earlier  years.  That  robustness 
of-  body  which  came  to  be  so  useful  to  him  when  he  was 
called  to  mount  the  high  "  lands  "  of  the  Saltmarket,  was 
gotten  or  strengthened  on  the  sand  bents  of  St.  Andrews; 
and  the  physical  vigour  which  he  then  acquired  had,  we 
may  also  allow  ourselves  to  think,  something  to  do  with 
the  healthy  tone  and  wholesome  robustness  of  his  mind. 

Besides,  it  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  supj^osed  that, 
because  his  conscious  intellectual  awakening  did  not  take 
place  till  he  was  fourteen,  there  was  no  real  progress  being 
sooner  made  in  his  education.  He  himself  spoke  at  a 
later  period  of  his  special  indebtedness  to  Dr.  Hunter ; 
and  such  direct  influence  as  he  could  have  exerted  upon 
him  must  have  been  put  forth  during  the  two  years  of 
nominal  idleness.  Insensibly  the  preparation  of  his  mind 
for  activity  was  going  on,  and  he  probably  learned  a  great 
deal  more  than  either  he  or  his  friends  were  at  all  aware  of. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  HIS  INTELLECT  TO  HIS  CONVERSION. 


HE  first  subject  which  thoroughly  awakened 
the  interest  of  Chalmers  was  mathematics. 
Professor  Vilant,  whose  duty  it  was  to  teach 
that  branch  of  learning  in  St.  Andrews,  was 
an  invalid,  and  was  obliged  to  employ  assistants.  The 
assistant  who  happened  to  be  in  charge  in  1793-4  was 
Dr.  James  Brown,  afterwards  Professor  of  Natural  Philo- 1 
sophy  in  Glasgow  ;  and  it  was  to  him  that  Chalmers  owed,i 
in  a  sense,  the  birth  of  his  intellect. 

"  Of  all  the  professors  and  instructors  with  whom  I 
have  ever  had  to  do,"  so  he  wrote  after  Dr.  Brown's 
death,  "he  is  the  one  who  most  powerfully  impressed  me, 
and  to  the  ascendency  of  whose  mind  over  me  I  owe 
more,  in  the  formation  of  my  tastes  and  habits,  and  in 
the  guidance  and  government  of  my  literary  life,  than  to 
that  of  all  the  other  academic  men  whose  classes  I  ever 
attended." 

He  afterwards  showed,  in  eloquent  and  even  indignant 
terms,  how  utterly  absurd  are  the  popular  notions  about 
mathematics.  "  It  is  not,"  he  argued,  "  a  dry  and  mechanical 
study,  in  which  there  is  nothing  to  stir  the  enthusiasm  of 
ingenuous  youth.  Its  fascinations  are  manifold  and  over- 
powering."    So,  at  any  rate,  he  himself  found  them  to  be. 


16  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

He  was  deeply  moved  by  the  new  views  which  now  opened 
before  him ;  and  it  was  only  after  many  years,  and  when 
other  and  higher  interests  came  to  absorb  his  mind,  that 
the  spell  which  was  now  woven  around  him  was  in  some 
measure  dissolved. 

But  there  were  also  other  things  which  contributed  to 
complete  the  mental  awakening  which  he  now  began  to 
experience.  He  became  keenly  interested  in  ethics  and 
politics.  It  was,  indeed,  hardly  possible  for  any  thought- 
ful person  to  avoid  that  in  those  days.  It  was  the  time 
of  the  first  French  Revolution,  when  many  questions 
which  were  assumed  to  be  settled  were  thrown  anew  into 
the  crucible,  and  when  men  were  compelled  to  look  at 
points  bearing  on  the  constitution  of  nations  not  from  the 
arbitrary  and  conventional  standpoints  of  this  party  or 
the  other — of  Wliig  and  Tory,  for  example — but  in  the 
light  of  what  was  demanded  by  the  principles  of  eternal 
justice. 

The  Avell-known  work  of  Godwin  fell  in  Chalmers's  way 
at  this  time,  and  the  reading  of  it  produced  a  profound 
impression  upon  his  mind.  That  impression  was  strength- 
ened by  intercourse  with  certain  "  brave  spirits  "  who  had 
come  under  the  peculiar  influence  of  the  era,  and  by 
whom  what  they  called  Toryism  and  Calvinism  were 
alike  regarded  with  contempt.  The  Moderatism  wath 
which,  at  this  time,  St.  Andrews  was  overrun  helped  to 
create  the  very  kind  of  atmosphere  most  congenial  to 
free  thinking.  And  for  a  season  it  actually  seemed  as  if 
Chalmers  were  going  to  let  go  such  moorings  as  he  had 
had,  and  to  drift  entirely  and  unresistingly  down  the 
stream. 

1  "What  arrested  him  and  prevented  this  catastrophe  was 
\  President  Edwards's  famous  "  Treatise  on  the  Freedom  of 

(636)  ' 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  17 

the  Will."  That  book  affected  him  in  an  extraordinary- 
way.  Fitting  in,  as  it  did,  so  far  with  what  he  had 
already  received  from  Godwin,  he  was  prepossessed  in 
its  favour  from  the  very  outset.  Both  writers  taught 
distinctly  the  doctrine  of  Necessity.  Chalmers  soon 
found,  however,  that  Edwards  had  by  far  the  more  sub- 
lime conceptions  of  the  two.  Teaching  that  the  whole 
series  of  events  in  the  spiritual  as  well  as  in  the  material 
universe  are  linked  unalterably  together,  he  showed  behind 
these  not  a  blind  law,  but  a  living_Person — God — direct- 
ing freely  the  development  of  the  system.  With  this  idea 
the  young  student  became  "nothing  short  of  enamoured." 
For  nearly  a  twelvemonth  he  was  in  a  sort  of  "  mental 
elysium."  The  world  presented  itself  to  him  in  an 
entirely  new  aspect.  The  greatness  and  power  and  all- 
pervading  energy  of  a  Supreme  Being  filled  his  mind 
continually  ;  and  by  such  an  air  of  what  looked  like  piety 
did  he  come  to  be  surrounded,  that  crowds  gathered  to 
the  public  hall  at  times  to  hear  him  pray  !  The  prayers 
which  he  offered  on  those  occasions  revealed  the  state  of 
his  mind.  There  was  in  them  a  wonderful  flow  of  elo- 
quent words,  containing  vivid  and  ardent  descriptions  of 
the  divine  attributes ;  but  they  were  intellectual  efforts 
only,  and  displayed  no  consciousness  whatever  of  spiritual 
need.  In  consequence  of  these  changes,  however,  he  grew 
to  be  a  marked  man  in  his  university,  and  already  some 
of  his  fellow-students  were  taking  note  of  his  talents  and 
of  the  promise  he  was  giving  of  future  eminence. 

In  1795  he  was  enrolled  as  a  student  of  divinity.  In 
1796  he  paid  his  first  visit  to  England,  keeping  in  the 
course  of  it  a  journal,  which  showed  that,  although  he  had 
been  carried  away  in  the  manner  described  by  the  specu- 
lations of  Godwin  and  Edwards,  he  still  remained  sober 

(036)  9 


18  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT. 

and  practical  enough  to  take  particular  notice  of  whatever 
came  in  his  way  en  route.  He  could  tell,  for  example, 
when  he  came  back,  all  about  the  locks  on  the  Forth  and 
Clyde  Canal,  and  even  how  many  steps  there  were  in  the 
stairs  of  Dumbarton  Castle.  In  May  1798  he  became 
tutor  in  a  private  family  ;  but  his  position  as  such  was 
most  uncomfortable,  and  he  left  it  as  soon  as  the  terras 
of  his  engagement  permitted. 

When  not  yet  nineteen  he  applied  to  the  Presbytery  of 
St.  Andrews  to  be  taken  on  trial  for  license.  Naturally 
enough  the  Presbytery  objected  on  the  ground  of  his  age. 
But  the  law  recognized  the  possibility  of  exceptional 
cases  arising.  Some  relaxation  was  to  be  allowed  in 
favour  of  "  lads  of  pregnant  pairts,"  and  Chalmers,  as  he 
used  laughingly  to  tell,  came  up  to  the  description  in  ques- 
tion. At  any  rate,  his  application  was  granted,  and  he  was 
j  formally  authorized  by  his  Church  to  preach  the  gospel  on 
the  31st  of  July  1799. 

It  is  very  clear,  however,  that  whatever  may  have  been 
his  motives  for  pressing  so  soon  to  the  front,  he  was  not 
animated  by  any  consuming  desire  to  tell  people  about  the 
way  of  life.  He  did  not  even  wait  over  the  succeeding 
Sabbath  to  preach  his  first  sermon  within  the  bounds  of 
his  own  Presbytery,  but  set  out  at  once  on  his  second 
\T.sit  to  England.  It  was  not  till  a  month  later,  the  25th 
of  August,  that  he  at  last  appeared  in  a  pulpit.  The 
place  was  the  Scotch  Church,  Wigan ;  and,  if  we  may 
accept  the  testimony  of  his  own  brother  James,  his  delnd 
was,  on  the  whole,  a  successful  one.  "  His  mode  of  de- 
liver}^"  says  this  possibly  partial  critic,  "is  expressive, 
his  language  beautiful,  and  his  arguments  very  forcible 
and  strong."  "His  sermon,"  he  adds,  "contained  a  due 
mixture  both  of  the  doctrinal  and  practical  parts  of  reli- 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  19 

gion ;  but,  I  think,  it  inclined  rather  more  to  the  latter." 
The  same  letter  which  tells  all  this  to  the  old  people  at 
Anstruther  ends  in  rather  a  significant  way.  ^' His  V 
mathematical  studies  seem  to  occupy  more  of  his  time  than  'A  ' 
the  religious " — a  fact  which  received  immediately  some- 
what striking  illustration.  He  was  summoned  down  to 
Edinburgh  with  the  hope  of  securing  a  situation  there.  That 
hope  was  not  realized  ;  but  he  remained  through  the  winter 
in  the  Scottish  capital,  attending  the  mathematical  class 
of  Professor  Playfair,  never  preaching  anywhere,  except 
once  at  Penicuick,  and  dreading  the  call  to  occupy  a  pulpit 
as  an  "  interruption  "  which  he  could  only  barely  tolerate. 

The  attitude  of  mind  thus  indicated  was  maintained 
through  another  session.  He  returned  to  Edinburgh  in 
November  1800,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  study  of 
chemistry. 

At  last  the  time  seemed  to  him  to  have  an-ived  for 
entering  on  the  work  of  his  proper  profession.  Two 
spheres  appeared  to  open  before  him.  One  was  the  parish 
of  Kilmany,  which  was  about  to  become  vacant  in  conse- 
quence of  the  contemplated  removal  of  Mr.  Cook,  the 
minister,  to  St.  Andrews.  The  other  was  the  assistantship 
at  Cavers.  The  patronage  of  Kilmany  was  vested  in  the 
senate  of  his  alma  mater.  It  was  an  understood  thing 
that  the  professors  were  to  have  each  his  turn  in  nominat- 
ing to  the  college  livings.  Dr.  Adamson,  one  of  the 
number,  and  a  relative  of  the  Anstruther  Chalmerses,  was 
in  this  way  found  to  have  the  key  to  the  position,  and  he 
was  not  so  unnatural  as  to  overlook  his  own  kith  and  kin. 
His  young  relative  Thomas  was  promised  the  presentation, 
and  Chalmers  was  then  able  with  a  light  heart  to  go  to 
Cavers  until  the  expected  transference  of  Mr.  Cook  had 
been  completed. 


20  PROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

With  what  views  the  new  assistant  entered  on  his  work 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  he  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  reside  in  the  parish,  and  that  the  following 
naive  description  of  his  pastoral  duties  appears  quite 
unaffectedly  in  a  letter  to  his  father:  "  Parochial  examina- 
tions are  quite  common  in  this  country.  I  begin  that 
duty  on  Monday  fortnight,  and,  as  the  parish  is  extensive, 
it  will  take  me  upwards  of  a  fortnight  to  accomplish  it." 
Residing  with  his  friend  Mr.  Shaw  in  the  manse  of 
Roberton,  seven  miles  away,  he  rode  over  to  Cavers  every 
Sabbath  morning  to  preach,  and  returned  again  contentedly 
to  his  quarters  when  the  service  was  over.  This  easy 
arrangement  was  interrupted  by  the  necessity  which  arose 
for  some  repairs  being  executed  at  Roberton ;  but  his  tent 
was  simply  transferred  to  Hawick,  and  there  he  remained 
until  he  removed  to  his  more  permanent  settlement  in 
Fife, 

On  the  2nd  of  November  1802  Chalmers  was  elected 
minister  of  Kilmany.  He  was  then  only  twenty -two 
years  of  age,  and  if  he  had  been  at  that  time  what  he 
afterwards  became,  it  would  have  seemed  to  him  that  the 
undertaking  of  the  cure  of  souls  was  a  serious  enough 
responsibility  in  itself ;  and  that,  in  order  to  the  proper 
discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  new  office,  there  was  little 
need  for  his  mind  being  distracted  by  other  occupations. 
But  he  had  no  true  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  step 
which  he  was  taking,  and  at  the  date  of  his  appointment 
he  was  probably  thinking  less  of  it  than  of  the  class  of 
mathematics  which  he  was  just  going  to  begin  in  the 
University  of  St.  Andrews.  While  he  was  in  Cavers,  he 
had  applied  successfully  for  the  assistantship  to  Professor 
Vilant.  It  was  the  plan  of  his  life  to  conduct  the  two 
offices — the  academic  and  the  ministerial — simultaneously ; 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  21 

and  as  his  highest  ambition  was  to  fill  a  mathematical 
chair,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  must  have  accepted 
the  living  of  Kilmany  very  much  as  a  matter  of  conve- 
nience. 

His  ordination  did  not  take  place  till  the  1 2th  of  May 
1803,  so  that  he  was  able  to  give  his  whole  time  during  the 
session  of  1802-3  to  academic  work.  When  this  was  over, 
an  interval  remained,  which  he  proposed  to  spend  in  Edin- 
burgh with  the  literati  of  that  city.  The  amiouncement 
of  this  intention  took  his  pious  father  by  surprise.  It 
appeared  to  him  that  before  entering  on  the  ministry  it 
would  be  seemly  to  devote  a  brief  season  to  meditation  and 
prayer,  and  he  suggested  so  much  to  his  son.  But  the 
well-intentioned  remonstrance  only  provoked  an  almost 
indignant  reply.  "I  am  astonished,"  wrote  the  son, 
"  that  the  measure  proposed  in  my  last  should  appear  in 
the  slightest  degree  objectionable.  I  hope  that  my  prin- 
ciples as  to  the  important  subject  alluded  to  are  already 
established,  and  that  they  do  not  require  any  extraordinary 
exercises  of  reflection  at  present.  I  have  had  sufficient 
time  for  reflection,  and  I  do  not  see  how  the  relaxation  of 
a  few  days  should  have  any  effect  in  overthrowing  those 
calm  and  decided  sentiments  which  I  have  already  formed. 
I  confess  I  like  not  those  views  of  religion  which  suppose 
that  the  business,  or  even  the  innocent  amusements,  of  the 
world  have  a  dangerous  tendency  to  unsettle  the  mind  for 

serious  and  elevating  exercises I  feel  that  the  solitude 

of  a  few  days  would  be  to  me  a  painful  and  unmeaning 
solemnity." 

Under  such  circumstances  the  settlement  took  place,  and 
from  May  to  November  he  lived  with  scarcely  a  break  in 
the  parish  whose  spiritual  oversight  he  had  undertaken. 

A  man  so  loving-hearted  and  full  of  energy  could  not 


22  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

pass  a  whole  summer  anywhere  without  making  a  distinct 
impression  upon  his  neighbourhood.  He  did  not  give  his 
strength  to  the  pulpit  in  Kilmany  ;  much  less  did  he  now 
proclaim  from  thence  that  gospel  which  was  by-and-by  to 
be  so  much  to  himself.  But  the  fact  that  he  had  more 
than  ordinary  talent  could  not  be  hid  ;  and  as  he  went 
freely  about  among  his  people,  they  were  irresistibly  drawn 
to  him  by  the  unaffected  simplicity  of  his  nature,  and  the 
frankness  and  geniality  of  his  manners.  The  summer  of 
1803  was  not,  therefore,  spent  altogether  in  vain.  No 
spiritual  fruit  was  gathered,  but  roots  were  struck  which 
had  in  certain  ways  something  to  do  with  the  grand  after- 
growth 

Winter  came,  however,  and  with  it  the  hope  of  a  renewal 
of  his  academic  engagements.  Kilmany  was  so  short  a 
distance  from  St.  Andrews,  and  his  ministerial  occupations 
engrossed  him  so  little,  that  the  idea  of  there  being  any- 
thing unreasonable  in  his  continuing  to  act  again  as 
mathematical  tutor  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  him. 
But  in  assuming  that  he  would,  of  course,  be  appointed 
for  the  second  time  to  the  office,  he  reckoned  without  his 
host.  Professor  Vilant  had  no  intention  of  doing  so. 
Chalmers  was  of  opinion  that  the  dislike  felt  for  him  was 
the  result  of  jealousy.  The  professor  himself  is  suspected 
of  having  thrown  out  insinuations  as  to  there  being  a  want 
of  competency.  Anyhow,  intimation  was  given  to  the 
minister  of  Kilmany  that  his  services  would  not  be  re- 
quired ;  and  with  a  pang,  the  bitterness  of  which  it  is  easy 
to  understand,  the  young  and  ambitious  scholar  saw  a  door 
deliberately  closed  against  him  through  which  he  had  hoped 
to  pass  to  the  distinction  of  a  chair  in  one  of  his  country's 
universities. 

But  he  proved  equal  to  the  occasion.     A  crisis,  he  con- 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  23 

sidered,  had  occurred  in  his  life.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he 
saw  in  what  had  happened  indications  of  the  existence  of 
a  conspiracy — of  a  conspiracy  to  shelve  him.  Telling  the 
story  afterwards,  he  said,  "  I  was  deserted  both  by  my 
employer  and  the  university,  and  my  career  was  at  last 
closed  by  the  ignominy  of  a  dismissal  from  my  employ- 
ment. I  was  now  disposed  of.  1  was  consigned  to  the 
obscurity  of  the  country.  I  was  compelled  to  return  in 
disgrace,  and  leave  the  field  to  my  exulting  enemies.  They 
had  gained  their  object — a  name  expunged  from  the  list 
of  competition — no  further  disturbance  from  interlopers 
— no  literary  upstart  to  emulate  their  delicious  repose,  or 
to  outstrip  them  in  public  estfeem — no  ambitious  intruder 
to  dispel  our  golden  dreams  of  preferment,  or  to  rise  along 
with  us  in  the  rich  harvest  of  benefices." 

Once  on  a  time,  they  say,  St.  Andrews  was  a  good  deal 
of  a  family  preserve.  The  Hills  and  the  Cooks  had  it  all 
their  own  way  ;  and  if  the  current  traditions  on  this  point 
are  to  be  received,  we  can  understand  how  there  may  have 
been  some  foundation  for  Chalmers's  belief,  that  those  who 
were  in  snug  possession  of  the  field  looked  with  misgiving 
at  the  ardent  new-comer  from  Anstruther.  Perhaps  some 
of  the  professors  may  have  given  their  votes  for  his 
appointment  to  Kilmany  all  the  more  readily  that  they 
hoped  he  would  be  content  with  his  country  living,  and 
not  bother  them  any  more  in  the  university. 

If  such  was  the  plot,  it  was  frustrated  in  a  manner 
which  must  have  confounded  all  their  traditional  notions  of 
propriety.  Chalmers  actually  resolved  to  beard  the  lions 
in  their  dens.  Before  the  session  commenced,  it  was  pro- 
claimed all  over  the  town  that  he  meant  to  open  extra- 
mural mathematical  classes  of.  his  own.  Tlie  announce- 
ment caused  quite  a  flutter  in  college  circles.     Some  of  the 


24  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  HIS  INTELLECT 

professors  cut  the  intruder  on  the  street.  Certain  of  his 
lady  acquaintances,  who  were  too  polite  to  go  that  length, 
became  quite  appreciably  colder  in  their  manner ;  and 
although  there  were  a  good  many  students  who  wanted 
to  join  him,  all  of  these  did  not  dare  to  do  so,  for  fear  of 
being  stopped  in  their  course,  or  of  losing  their  bursaries. 
Nevertheless  he  held  on  his  way.  As  he  had  some  spare 
time  on  his  hands,  he  opened  also  classes  in  chemistry. 
And  throughout  the  winter  he  fought  his  battle,  and  that 
with  such  good  nature  and  courage  and  gallantry  that  in 
the  end  his  very  worst  enemies  were  fain  to  capitulate,  the 
very  professor  who  was  most  implicated  becoming  the  first 
to  extend  to  him  the  right  hand  of  friendship. 

"While  thus,  however,  taking  the  univer.sity  by  storm, 
he  was  compelled  to  inquire  whether  he  was  not  laying 
himself  open  to  a  damaging  attack  in  the  rear.  Kilmany 
got  very  little  of  his  attention  that  winter.  He  went 
out  every  Saturday  to  preach,  and  returned  on  Monday 
morning,  and  that  was  all  that  his  parishioners  saw  of  him 
during  the  week.  There  were  some  members  of  Presby- 
tery who  did  not  think  this  quite  the  thing,  and  with  a 
great  deal  of  fine  moral  indignation,  Chalmers  heard  one 
day  that  his  conduct  was  about  to  be  made  the  subject 
of  formal  comment  and  complaint. 

He  faced  his  accusers  boldly.  He  had,  he  contended, 
done  nothing  amiss.  All  the  work  required  of  him  he 
had  faithfully  and  conscientiously  attended  to,  and  he 
challenged  any  man  to  go  through  his  parish  and  bring 
back  a  single  charge  of  neglect  of  duty  in  any  direction. 

"  What  more,"  he  loftily  asked,  "  will  the  gentleman 
require  of  me?  Has  he  any  right  to  control  me  in  the 
distribution  of  my  spare  time  1  I  maintain  he  has  none. 
I  spurn  at  the  attempt,  as  I  would  at  the  petty  insolence 


TO  IIIS  CONVERSIOX.  25 

of  a  tyrant ;  I  regret  it  as  the  interference  of  an  officious 
intermeddler.  To  the  last  sigh  of  my  heart  I  will  struggle 
for  independence,  and  eye  with  proud  disdain  the  man 
who  presumes  to  invade  it." 

Next  winter  he  asserted  his  independence  by  resuming 
his  classes  in  chemistry;  but  they  occupied  him  for  only  two 
days  in  the  week,  and  he  justified  his  devotion  of  so  much 
time  to  an  occupation  which  did  not  lie  naturally  to  the 
hand  of  a  minister  by  saying :  "It  affords  a  rational  and 
dignified  amusement,  and  it  fills  up  that  spare  time  Avhich 
I  would  otherwise  fx'et  away  in  indolence  and  disgust;  but 
it  trenches  upon  no  essential  duty,  and  I  expend  as  much 
effort  upon  the  religious  improvement  of  my  people  as  any 
minister  within  the  bounds  of  my  Presbytery." 

It  is  quite  likely  that  Chalmers  was  correct  enough  in 
his  estimate.  Among  the  easy-going  ministers  of  the 
neighbourhood  there  were  no  doubt  some  who  spoke 
against  the  chemical  lectures,  but  whose  own  spare  time 
was  spent  in  a  very  much  less  profitable  way.  But  there 
was  one  drawback  in  the  case  of  Chalmers,  which  took  much 
of  the  pith  and  grace  out  of  his  defences.  It  was  this — 
that  his  heart  was  obviously  not  in  his  profession.  And 
what  proved  that,  was  his  eagerness  to  leave  it.  In  the 
winter  of  1804  the  chair  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  St. 
Andrews  fell  vacant,  and  he  at  once  became  a  candidate 
for  it;  and  when  a  few  months  later  another  opening 
occurred  in  Edinburgh,  he  eagerly  sought  there  the  post 
of  Professor  of  Mathematics. 

He  was  not  successful  in  either  application ;  but  the 
latter  is  memorable,  because  it  was  in  connection  with  it 
that  he  first  appealed  to  the  public  through  the  press. 

Curiously  enough,  his  theme  was  the  one  which  had 
already  given  him  so  much  vexation.     It  was  sufficiently 


26  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

hard  that  his  co-presbyters  and  his  own  father  should 
doubt  about  the  compatibility  of  mathematical  pursuits 
with  his  clerical  responsibilities.  But  here  was  another 
sort  of  person — no  less  a  man  than  Professor  Playfair — 
actually  insinuating  the  same  thing.  It  is  true  that  the 
offensive  charge  was  only  made  incidentally  in  a  single 
"  passage  "  in  a  letter,  and  that,  moreover,  it  was  stated 
quite  generally,  with  no  special  reference  to  him.  But 
there  could  be  no  question  that  the  cap  fitted  the  minister 
of  Kilmany.  For  him  it  had  a  personal  sting;  and, 
smarting  perhaps  under  the  pain  of  it,  he  sought  relief  in 
a  pamphlet.  How  effectively  he  vindicated  the  claims  of 
his  profession  to  intermeddle  freely  with  all  wisdom  is 
seen  in  the  sentence  which  has  often  been  quoted  since, 

"  The  author  of  this  pamphlet,"  says  he,  "  can  assert, 
from  what  to  him  is  the  highest  possible  authority,  the 
authority  of  his'  own  experience,  that  after  the  satisfactory 
discharge  of  his  parish  duties,  a  minister  may  enjoy  five 
days  in  the  week  of  uninterrupted  leisure  for  the  prose- 
cution of  any  science  in  which  his  taste  may  dispose  him 
to  engage." 

What  made  the  life  of  a  minister  such  a  light  one  in  his 

view  was,  that  it  was  so  easy  to  -write  sermons.     "  There 

.  is,"  he  informed  Professor  Playfair,  "almost  no  consump- 

'i  tion  of  intellectual  effort  in  the  peculiar  employment  of  a 

'  minister.     The  great  doctrines  of  revelation,  though  sub- 

j  lime,  are  simple.     They  require  no  labour  of  the  midrught 

i  oil  to  understand  them ;  no  parade  of  artificial  language 

to  impress  them  upon  the  hearts  of  the  people." 

His  own  sermons,  at  this  period,  do  not  seem  to  have 
awakened  any  very  great  interest.  This  was  owing,  no 
doubt,  in  great  part  to  their  wanting  substance  in  the 
evangelical  sense,  and  to  the  absence  of  unction  in  their 


TO  ins  CONVERSION.  27 

delivery.  But  it  is  more  than  likely  that  they  failed  also 
because  they  did  not  even  represent  his  mind.  He  did 
not  think  any  intellectual  effort  was  required  to  throw  oft* 
a  discourse,  and  the  intellectual  effort,  accordingly,  was  not 
given.  What  he  expended  his  mental  activity  upon  was 
something  entirely  different — it  was  upon  those  gorgeous 
lectures  in  which  he  sought  to  stir  up  the  enthusiastic 
interest  of  his  classes  in  chemistry  and  mathematics. 

And  yet  he  had  during  this  period  his  own  earnest 
thoughts  about  religion,  and  his  own  distinct  theories  as 
to  how  men  were  to  be  benefited  by  it. 

Upon  one  point  he  had  quite  made  up  his  mind.  He 
had  a  hearty  dislike  to  evangelical  religion.  He  was 
honestly  convin-ced  that  it  made  light  of  the  personal 
virtues,  and  gave  an  altogether  fictitious  value  to  the 
theological  grace  of  faith.  Hence,  one  day  bending  over 
the  pulpit,  and  speaking  so  as  to  express  in  his  manner 
the  keenness  of  his  aversion,  he  said  :  "  Many  books  are 
favourites  with  you  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  are  no 
favourites  of  mine.  Wlien  you  are  reading  Newton's 
'  Sermons,'  and  Baxter's  '  Saint's  Rest,'  and  Doddridge's 
'  Rise  and  Progress,'  where  do  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke, 
and  John  go  to  ? " 

Simple  as  the  Kilmany  folk  might  be,  they  knew  very 
well  that  this  apparently  consuming  anxiety  about  Mat- 
thew, Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  was  not  the  real  cause  of  the 
warning  they  were  receiving.  Zeal  for  the  gospel  was 
being  used  as  the  cover  under  which  an  attack  was  made 
upon  books  with  which  their  minister  was  out  of  sym- 
pathy. 

As  to  his  own  system,  we  have  preserved  to  us  a  fairly 
intelligible  summary  of  it. 

"  In  what  particular  manner,"  said   he,   "the  death  of 


I 


28  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

our  Redeemer  effected  the  remission  of  our  sins,  or  rather, 
why  that  death  was  made  a  condition  of  this  remission, 
seems  to  be  an  unrevealed  point  in  the  Scriptures.  Per- 
haps the  God  of  nature  meant  to  illustrate  the  purity  of 
his  perfection  to  the  children  of  men ;  perhaps  it  was 
efficacious  in  promoting  the  improvement  and  confirming 
the  virtue  of  other  orders  of  being.  The  tenets  of  those 
whose  gloomy  and  unenlarged  minds  are  apt  to  imagine 
that  the  Author  of  nature  required  the  death  of  Jesus 
merely  for  the  reparation  of  violated  justice,  are  rejected 
by  all  free  and  rational  inquirers." 

About  the  Atonement,  in  short ;  he  recognized  its 
value.  Through  it,  is  received  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
But  how  it  operates,  he  could  not  tell.  One  thing  only 
was  clear  to  him — namely,  that  the  orthodox  theory  was 
incredible. 

Then,  with  regard  to  the  method  of  a  sinner's  justifica- 
tion, this  is  what  he  taught  in  the  early  days  of  his 
ministry  : — 

"  The  rewards  of  heaven  are  allied  to  the  exercise  of  our 
•virtuous  affections.  The  faith  of  Christianity  is  praise- 
worthy and  meritorious  only  because  it  is  derived  from 
the  influence  of  virtuous  sentiments  upon  the  mind.  Let 
us  tremble,  to  think  that  anything  but  virtue  can  commend 

us  to  the  Almighty True,  our  best  endeavours  faU  short 

of  perfection ;  and,  after  all,  we  may  be  called  unprofitable 
servants.  But  contemplating  the  wonders  of  redeeming 
love,  and  finding  all  the  deficiencies  of  his  imperfect  virtue 
supplied  by  the  atonement  and  propitiation  of  Jesus,  we 
may  go  on  our  course  rejoicing,  assured  that  through 
Christ  our  sincere  but  imperfect  obedience  is  looked  upon 
by  Heaven  with  a  propitious  eye." 

One  thinks  of  Chalmers  at  this  time  as  resembling  an 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  29 

almost  pent-up  stream  which  is  ever  growing  in  volume 
and  momentum,  and  which  eagerly  breaks  forth  at  every 
opening,  legitimate  or  otherwise,  that  is  made  for  it.  The 
ministry,  as  he  then  conceived  of  it,  afforded  far  too  nar- 
row a  channel  for  the  full  outflow  of  his  energies.  If  the 
university  had  continued  open  to  him,  he  might  have  been 
satisfied  with  what  Kilmany  and  St  Andrews  combined 
could  offer.  But  when  his  "  enemies,"  as  he  called 
them,  capitulated  and  became  his  friends,  he  had  no 
longer  a  motive  for  maintaining  a  fight,  and  his  classes 
for  chemistry  and  mathematics  were  given  up.  After  that, 
indeed,  he  still  sustained  in  a  manner  the  character  of  a 
scientific  teacher  by  giving  popular  lectures,  first  in  Kil- 
many, and  next  in  his  county  town  of  Cupar.  But  such 
outlets  were  not  sufficient ;  and  it  was,  in  one  respect,  a 
fortunate  circumstance  that  a  new  interest  was  made  for 
him  by  the  events  of  the  times. 

Napoleon   Bonaparte   had   conquered   the   continent   of 
Europe,  and  was  now  waiting  to  bring  England  also  to  his 
feet.     The  very  thought  of  such  a  possibility  filled  the  soul 
of  Chalmers  with  a  sort  of  horror,  and  with  more  than  char- — 
acteristic  ardour  he  threw  himself  into  the  movement  set 
on  foot  to  repel  the  invader.     He  himself  joined  a  corps  \ 
which  was  formed  to  prevpnt  the  French  from  landing  in    \ 
St.  Andrews  Bay — accepting  in  it  two  offices  which  are  1 
not  usually  held  in  conjunction,  those  of  lieutenant  and   ; 
chaplain ;  and  if  he  was  not  joined  on  the   occasion  by 
any  recruits  from  among  his  parishioners  in  Kilmany,  it 
could  not  have  been  from  any  lack  in  the  strength  of  the 
language  which  he  used  in  the  pulpit  to  describe  the  im- 
portance of  the  cause. 

Who  can  read  without  smiling  such  sentences  as  the 
following,  spoken,  as  we  may  believe  them  to  have  been. 


30  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

■vrith  kindling  eye  and  a  countenance  glowing  with  honest 
indignation  : — 
I  "  INIay  that  day  when  Bonaparte  ascends  the  throne  of 
Britain  be  the  last  of  my  existence ;  may  I  be  the  first  to 
ascend  the  scaffold  he  erects  to  extinguish  the  worth  and 
spirit  of  the  country ;  may  my  blood  mingle  with  the  blood 
of  patriots,  and  may  I  die  at  the  foot  of  that  altar  on  which 
British  independence  is  to  be  the  victim  !  " 

If  these  words  had  been  spoken  by  a  mere  stump  orator, 
they  might  have  been  set  down  for  tall  talk,  or  for  what 
the  Americans  call  spread  eagleism,  but  there  cannot  be 
a  doubt  that  the  preacher  was  as  guileless  and  sincere  now 
as  he  was  in  all  his  after  life,  and  the  apostrophe  may  be 
taken  as  evidence  at  once  of  the  simplicity  of  his  nature 
and  of  the  extent  to  which  he  was  moved. 

The  French  did  not  attempt  to  cross  the  Channel,  and  so 
this  scare  passed  away ;  but  the  state  of  the  country  led 
Chalmers  to  study  anew  the  subject  of  political  economy, 
and  the  result  was  the  publication  of  his  first  book — "  An 
Inquiry  into  the  Extent  and  Stability  of  the  National 
Resources."  For  the  success  of  this  book  he  showed  an 
extraordinary  anxiety.  It  sold  well  enough  in  Scotland, 
but  what  he  wanted  above  all  things  was  that  it  should 
i.  take  well  in  England.  He  pined  for  literary  distinction. 
To  be  known  in  London  became  for  the  moment  the  height 
of  his  ambition ;  and  in  his  correspondence  with  his  brother 
James,  who  had  gone  to  stay  there,  and  with  Wilkie  the 
painter,  who  was  a  son  of  the  minister  of  Cults  and  an  old 
acquaintance,  he  indicated  that  there  was  nothing  he  was 
not  willing  to  do  in  order  to  secure  the  honour  of  a  second 
edition.  The  book  did  receive  some  notice,  and  was  more 
than  worthy  of  the  notice  it  got,  because  it  contained  some 
very  striking  and  original  suggestions ;  but  it  did  not  set 


TO  HIS  CONVERSIOX.  31 

the  Thames  on  fire,  and  still  the  author  had  to  wait  for  the 
something  which  was  to  secure  for  him  the  eminence  to 
which  he  was  destined. 

It  was  Religion  that  was  to  raise  him  to  the  altitude 
which  he  finally  achieved.  But  nobody  can  read  even  this 
chapter  of  his  history  without  seeing  that  religion  only 
turned  to  its  own  account  powers  which  would  sooner  or 
later  have  made  their  possessor  famous,  to  whatever  depart- 
ment of  life  he  chose  to  devote  himself. 

Wliat  strikes  us  about  him  (apart  from  that  exuberance 
of  mental  energy  which  we  have  just  been  noticing)  is  that 
he  possessed  in  an  extraordinary  measure  such  character- 
istics as  the  following  :  a  freshness,  fire,  oi'iginality,  and 
inventiveness  of  mind,  which  revealed  the  presence  in  him 
of  that  peculiar  quality  which  we  call  genius ;  a  wonder- 
ful power  of  acute  and  exact  observation  ;  and  a  whole- 
souled  out-goingness  of  nature  which  made  it  certain  that 
wherever  he  was  set  down  he  would  not  be  a  contempla- 
tive dreamer,  but  a  very  active  force  in  life. 

The  popular  idea  of  Chalmers  is  that  he  was  essentially 
a  great  preacher.  His  own  notion  regaixling  himself  was  ; 
that  he  was  cut  out  to  be  a  military  engineer  !  There  can  i 
be  no  doubt,  at  any  rate,  about  his  interest  in  and  his  know- 
ledge of  mathematics.  It  was  his  earliest  ambition  to  be 
a  mathematical  professor.  He  was  far,  however,  from 
being  a  mere  homo  unias  scientice.  He  would  have  under- 
taken gladly  the  teaching  of  natural  philosophy,  of  chem- 
istry, or  of  political  economy.  And  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that,  if  some  of  the  positions  he  aspired  after  had 
become  his,  he  would  to  a  certainty  have  thrown  around 
them  the  lustre,  not  only  of  his  matchless  eloquence,  but  of 
new  and  striking  discovery. 

It  was  a  curious  instance  of  his  far-sightedness  that  he 


32  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

had  gas  tubes  introduced  into  his  new  manse  at  Kilmany 
long  before  any  one  had  thought  of  dispensing  with  lamps 
or  candles.  And  so  early  as  1809  he  was  laying  down 
principles  which  have  been  applied  only  within  the  last 
few  years,  to  the  raising  of  the  income  tax  and  the  enlist- 
ment of  soldiers. 

Such  a  mind  as  his  could  not  fail  to  see  new  things  every- 
where. He  observed  so  carefully  and  with  such  an  open  and 
candid  eye.  It  is  quite  refreshing,  for  example,  to  read  the 
journal  which  he  kept  during  his  first  visit  to  London. 
Nothing  escaped  him.  He  spent  an  hour  with  a  chemist, 
and  described  minutely  his  apparatus.  He  saw  the  model  of 
a  cotton  mill,  and  down  went  a  sketch  of  its  mode  of  work- 
ing. He  visited  a  museum  of  mechanical  curiosities,  and  a 
descriptive  catalogue  was  forthwith  made  of  its  contents. 
Nor  did  he  confine  himself  to  art.  Nature  was  quite  as 
attractive  to  him,  and  his  pictures  of  it  were  quite  as  minute. 
He  was  delighted  with  Windsor.  "  I  went  down,"  he  says, 
"  to  the  terrace,  and  as  I  walked  along  the  south  of  the 
oastle,  I  swore  in  the  gladness  of  my  heart  that  never  was 
scene  so  sweet  or  fair.  The  vivid  green  seen  in  patches 
through  the  fringe  of  luxuriant  branches,  the  extensive 
lawns  below,  on  which  the  peaceful  cattle  were  grazing, 
the  hum  of  the  village,  the  grand  association  of  majesty, 
his  pious  and  amiable  character,  his  selection  of  this  quiet 
retirement  as  a  refuge  from  the  cares  and  the  splendour 
of  royalty,  threw  me  into  a  train  of  emotions,  soothing, 
tranquil,  and  elevating." 

What  a  pleasant  touch,  too,  is  here ;  he  was  on  the 
top  of  a  coach  on  his  homeward  journey  :  "  In  passing 
through  the  wild  succession  of  corn  fields  and  picturesque 
cottages,  with  the  evening  sun  shedding  its  quiet  light  over 
the  landscape,  I  was  struck  with  the  figure  of  a  woman 


TO  HIS  CONVERSION.  33 

reading  at  a  window,  a  sober  reflection  pictured  on  her 
countenance. " 

There  is  even  something  peculiarly  suggestive  in  the 
amusingly  vigorous  language  in  which  in  those  days 
Chalmers  occasionally  expressed  himself.  It  speaks  of  an 
honest  soul  with  no  guile  or  affectation  about  it. 

Travelling  from  Carlisle  toward  London  he  had  as  his 
fellow-passengers  in  the  coach  a  lady  and  a  gentleman,  with 
whom,  in  the  kindliness  of  his  nature,  he  tried  to  get  into 
conversation.  The  lady  was  affable  enough ;  but  for  the 
gentleman,  "  I  never  witnessed  in  my  life  such  a  want  of 
cordiality,  such  a  cold  and  repulsive  deportment,  such  a 
stingy  and  supercilious  air,  and  so  much  of  that  con- 
founded spirit,  too  prevalent  among  the  books  and  fine 

gentlemen  of  the  age I  sustained  my  confidence.       I 

upheld  the  timidity  of  the  company,  and  had  the  satis- 
faction of  reducing  him  at  last  to  civility  and  complai- 
sance." 

"  By  the  way,"  says  he  again,  "I  have  no  patience  with 

Mrs.  ;  not  a  particle  of  cordiality  about  her ;  cold, 

formal,  and  repulsive  ;  a  perfect  stranger  to  the  essence  of 
politeness,  with  a  most  provoking  pretension  to  its  exterior; 
a  being  who  carries  in  her  very  eye  a  hampering  and 
restraining  criticism ;  who  sets  herself  forward  as  a  pattern 
of  correct  manners,  while  she  spreads  pain,  restraint,  and 
misery  around  her ;  whose  example  I  abominate,  and  whose 
society  I  must  shun,  as  it  would  blast  all  the  joy  and 
independence  of  London." 

The  unaffected  heartiness  with  which  he  thus  denounced 
the  want  of  frankness  in.  others,  was,  no  doubt,  caused  by 
the  consciousness  which  he  had  of  having  so  much  humanity 
in  Ms  own  nature.  A  violent  commotion  must  follow  when 
two  strong  streams  meet,  coming  from  opposite  directions, 

(630)  3 


34  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HIS  INTELLECT 

My  own  recollections  of  Chalmers  date  from  a  very 
much  later  period.  He  was  then  spending  that  last  decade, 
which,  it  was  his  theory,  should  be  given  as  much  as 
possible  to  rest  and  to  preparation  for  eternity.  His  most 
active  life,  therefore,  was  over.  But  I  can  never  forget 
how  often,  even  at  that  time,  there  flashed  forth  signs  of 
that  many-sidedness  which  made  him  the  great  man  he 
was,  and  which  appeared  so  strikingly  during  the  par- 
ticular era  in  his  history  which  has  been  reviewed  in  this 
chapter. 

If  you  had  met  him  on  a  winter's  day,  "  stumping " 
along  George  Street  towards  his  class-room  in  the  (tem- 
porary) New  College,  your  first  thought  would  probably 
have  found  fit  expression  in  the  exclamation,  "  There  goes 
an  honest  man  !"  His  short,  thick-set  figure,  comfortably 
wrapped  up  to  resist  the  cold  ;  his  round,  lustreless,  wide- 
open  eyes ;  and  his  steady  but  not  very  graceful  gait,  all 
suggested  the  idea  that  he  was  some  clergyman  from  the 
country,  who  had  lived  all  his  days  among  the  fields,  and 
knew  nothing  either  of  the  ways  or  the  wickedness  of  the 
world.  You  might,  indeed,  have  hesitated  to  come  to  such 
a  conclusion  if  you  had  noticed  what  became  increasingly 
plain  as  he  advanced  in  life — his  likeness  to  Luther.  But 
certainly  what  his  outward  appearance  led  men  chiefly  to 
think  of  was  his  unafiected  guilelessness.  If,  however,  you 
had  followed  him  to  his  class,  you  would. have  learned  that 
that  simplicity  which  formed  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
features  in  his  character  was  associated  with  what  many 
look  for  only  in  the  sophisticated — shrewdness,  knowledge 
of  men  and  things,  an  observation  which  nothing  escaped, 
humour  which  cast  his  audience  sometimes  into  convulsions, 
and  a  practical  sagacity  in  business  matters  which  one 
would  not  have  been  astonished  at  in  a  successful  merchant, 


TO  HIS  COXVERSIOX.  35 

but  which  nobody  looks  for  in  philosophical  or  theological 
professors. 

There  have  been  not  a  few  men  who  have  achieved  great- 
ness, because  they  adhered  to  one  pursuit  and  came  to 
excel  in  it ;  but  the  noticeable  thing  here  is  that  Chalmers 
showed  unmistakably  a  capacity  to  excel  in  many  things, 
and  that  this  appeared  in  most  conspicuous  Avays  before 
he  was  eight-and-twenty. 


CHAPTER  in. 

FROM  HIS  CONVERSION  TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW. 

ilHE  first  ste})  toward  the  higher  life  which  Chal- 
mers was  now  about  to  lead  may  be  said  to 
have  been  taken  when  he  delivered  his  maiden 
speech  in  the  General  Assembly.  This  hap- 
pened on  the  25th  of  May  1809.  Tlie  topic  on  which  he 
discoursed  was  not  one  which  seemed  to  furnish  much 
scope  for  eloquence ;  it  bore  on  the  augmentation  of  the 
stipends  of  the  clergy.  But  there  was  no  subject  he  touched 
into  which  he  did  not  throw  some  freshness ;  and  be- 
sides, an  opportunity  was  offered  in  the  present  case  for 
the  display  of  just  those  qualities  of  quiet  humour,  of 
shrewd  common  sense,  and  of  practical  sagacity  which 
made  him  so  much  of  a  power  in  ecclesiastical  economics 
in  after  life. 

"  It  is  quite  ridiculous,"  said  he  in  closing,  and  pleading 
for  an  adequate  support  being  given  to  the  Christian 
ministry — "  it  is  quite  ridiculous  to  say  that  the  worth  of 
the  clergy  will  suffice  to  keep  them  up  in  the  estimation 
of  society.  Tliis  worth  must  be  combined  with  import- 
ance. Now  it  is  our  part  to  supply  the  element  of  worth, 
and  it  is  the  part  of  the  Court  of  Session  to  supply  the 
element  of  im]:)ortance.  Give  both  woi-tli  and  importance 
to  the  same  individual,  and  what  are  the  terms  employed 


FROM  HIS  CONVERSION,   ETC.  37 

in  describing  hini  ?  '  A  distinguished  member  of  society, 
the  ornament  of  a  most  respectable  profession,  the  virtuous 
companion  of  the  great,  and  a  generous  consoler  of  all 
the  sickness  and  poor  around  him.'  These,  Moderator, 
appear  to  me  to  be  the  terms  peculiarly  descriptive  of  the 
appropriate  character  of  a  clergyman,  and  they  serve  to 
mark  the  place  which  he  ought  to  occupy.  But  take 
away  the  importance,  and  leave  only  the  worth,  and  what 
do  you  make  of  him  1  what  is  the  descriptive  term  applied 
to  him  now  1  Precisely  the  term  which  I  often  find  applied 
to  many  of  my  brethren,  and  which  galls  me  to  the  very 
bone  every  time  I  hear  it — '  A  fine  body  P — a  being  whom 
you  may  like,  but  whom  I  defy  you  to  esteem;  a  mere 
object  of  endearment,  a  being  whom  the  great  may  at 
times  honour  with  the  condescension  of  a  dinner,  but  whom 
they  will  never  admit  as  a  respectable  addition  to  their 
society.  Now  all  that  I  demand  of  the  Court  of  Teinds  is 
to  be  raised,  and  that  as  speedily  as  possible,  above  the 
imputation  of  being  '  a  fine  body ' — that  they  would  add 
importance  to  my  worth,  and  give  splendour  and  efficacy 
to  those  exercises  which  have  for  their  object  the  most 
exalted  interests  of  the  species." 

When  he  sat  down,  inquiries  broke  out  upon  all  sides, 
Who  is  this  new  man,  who  speaks  so  genially,  so  sensibly, 
so  pawkily,  and  so  well  ?  Another  turning-point,  in  fact, 
had  been  reached  in  his  life.  He  had  been  known  before 
to  the  literati  of  two  universities,  and  within  his  own 
Synod  of  Fife;  but  now  he  had  shown  himself  in  the 
Assembly,  and  was  thenceforth  a  marked  man  in  the 
Church  at  large. 

In  particular,  the  speech  which  he  now  delivered  brought 
him  into  contact  with  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  and  the 
Brewsters,  and  he  became  in  consequence  a  contributor 


38  FROM  HIS  CONVERSION 

to  the  Christian  Instructor  and  to  the  Edinhurgh  Encyclo- 
pcHclia. 

For  the  latter  he  undertook  to  Avrite  upon  Christianity. 
He  must  have  had  his  own  special  reasons  for  choosing 
this  subject  (it  was  assigned  to  him  at  his  OAvn  very  urgent 
request),  but  it  does  not  appear  that  what  attracted  hiru 
to  it  was  any  peculiar  love  for  its  distinctive  doctrines. 
He  thought  of  it  chiefly  in  an  apologetic  aspect,  and  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  so  stating  the  external  evidences  as  to 
make  the  faith  impregnable  against  all  the  assaults  of 
unbeHef.  But  although  this  may  have  been  all  that  he 
himself  expected  to  make  out  of  the  study,  God  had  ar- 
ranged differently.  In  entering  upon  this  pursuit  he  had 
unwittingly  set  his  face  directly  toward  the  light. 

In  returning  from  the  General  Assembly  he  was  seized 
with  an  illness  which  kept  him  at  home  for  two  months. 
At  the  end  of  that  time — the  begimiing  of  August — he 
was  able  to  go  down  to  Anstruther  for  a  few  weeks;  but 
even  then  his  restoration  could  not  have  been  complete, 
for  when  he  was  on  his  way  back  he  suffered  a  relapse 
which  brought  him  into  a  far  worse  condition  than  ever. 
For  four  months  he  was  confined  to  his  room,  for  more 
than  six  he  was  unable  to  preach;  and  although  in  little 
more  than  a  year  he  was  discharging  again  all  his  parochial 
duties,  it  was  a  much  longer  time  than  that  before  he  was 
again  in  all  respects  the  man  he  had  been.  His  ailment 
was  an  affection  of  the  liver,  which  necessitated  the  employ- 
ment of  very  severe  remedies ;  and  while  these  were  being 
applied,  he  was  reduced  to  such  a  state  of  Aveakness  that 
he  expected  nothing  else  than  death.  A  very  solemnizing 
impression  was  produced  on  his  mind  by  his  thus  being 
brought  face  to  face  mth  eternity. 

"  My  confinement,"  he  wrote  in  February   1809,  "  has 


TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW.  39 

fixed  on  my  heart  a  very  strong  impression  of  the  msigni- 
ficance  of  time — an  impression  which  I  trust  ^vill  not  aban- 
don me  though  I  again  reach  tlie  heyday  of  health  and 
vigour.  Tliis  shoukl  be  the  first  step  to  another  impres- 
sion still  more  salutary — thg,  magnitude  of  eternity.  Stri}) 
human  life  of  its  connection  with  a  higher  scene  of  exist- 
ence, and  it  is  the  illusion  of  an  instant,  an  unmeaning 
farce,  a  series  of  visions  and  projects  and  convulsive  efforts 
which  terminate  in  nothing.  I  have  been  reading  Pascal's 
'Thoughts  on  Religion.'  You  know  his  history — a  man 
of  the  richest  endowments,  and  whose  youth  was  signalized 
by  his  profound  and  original  speculations  in  mathematical 
science,  but  who  could  stop  short  in  the  brilliant  career  of 
discovery,  who  could  resign  all  the  splendours  of  literary 
reputation,  who  could  renounce  without  a  sigh  all  the 
distinctions  which  are  conferred  upon  genius,  and  resolve 
to  devote  every  talent  and  eveiy  hour  to  the  defence  and 
illustration  of  the  gospel.  This,  my  dear  su",  is  superior 
to  all  Greek  and  all  Roman  fame." 

Here,  then,  the  second  step  of  the  process  was  taken. 
Affliction  was  used  as  God's  minister  to  bring  him  to 
reflection ;  and,  as  the  result,  religion  became  no  longer  a 
secondaiy,  but  a  primary  concern  with  him. 

But,  with  all  that,  he  had  still  much  to  learn.  He  had 
been  brought,  in  some  measure,  to  realize  the  evil  of  sin, 
and  e.specially  the  evil  of  the  sin  of  ungodliness.  He  wa.s 
also  prepared  now  to  attach  far  greater  importance  than 
formerly  to  the  death  of  Christ.  But  he  did  not  under- 
stand as  yet  that  salvation  from  first  to  last  is  all  of  grace  ; 
and  he  still  went  about  to  establish,  if  he  could,  a  righteous- 
ness of  his  own.  While  relying  for  pardon  on  the  atone- 
ment, he  did  not  conceive  it  to  be  reasonable  to  trust  to  it 
entirely  for  acceptance;  and  in  order  to  put  himself  right 


\ 


40  FROM  HIS  CONVERSION 

with  God,  he  began  a  disciplinary  process  which  was  to 
issue,  as  he  hoped,  in  the  production  of  a  pure  morality — 
his  own  workmanship — by  means  of  which  he  might  make 
himself,  in  a  degi-ee  at  least,  well-pleasing  to  God.  "  More 
than  a  year  of  fruitless  toil  had  to  be  described  ere  the 
true  ground  of  a  sinner's  acceptance  was  reached,  and  the 
true  principle  of  all  acceptable  obedience  was  implanted  in 
his  heart." 

The  honest  effort  thus  made,  however,  was  not  alto- 
gether vain.  As  we  read  the  journal  iia  which  the  history 
of  it  is  told,  we  encounter  again  and  again  promises  and 
prophecies  of  the  coming  dawn. 

Thus,  on  a  Sabbath  evening  at  Anster,  he  writes: 
"  Returned  to  my  room  for  two  hours  betwixt  tea  and 
supper,  and  tasted  the  delights  of  piety." 

Again  we  read  :  "  Rode  to  St.  Andrews  with  Lucy. 
Made  a  good  many  calls  there,  and  feel  a  growing  indif- 
ference to  vmiversity  preferment.     This  I  regret  not." 

A  few  days  later  he  says :  *'  I  am  alarmed  at  the  small 
and  uncertain  progress  of  the  religious  principle  in  my 
mind.  O  God  !  may  the  power  of  thy  Son's  atonement  be 
to  me  the  effectual  instrument  both  of  comfort  and  of 
righteousness. " 

This  is  significant  too  :  "  Preached  as  usual;  the  people, 
I  thought,  were  attentive  and  impressed,  particularly  in 
the  forenoon." 

And  one  can  easily  guess  the  direction  in  which  his  face 
Avas  turning  when  we  read  the  following:  "  Heard  sermon 
in  the  forenoon  at  New  Greyfriars',  and  was  much  pleased 
with  the  manly  and  vigorous  orthodoxy  of  Mr.  Andrew 
Thomson. " 

The  day,  however,  did  not  really  break  until  the  24:th 
of  December  1810,  when  we  find  this  entry  in  his  diary: 


TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW.  41 

"  Have  begun  to  read  Wilberforce,  and  hope  to  be  much 
the  better  of  it.  '  Next  day  he  adds  :  "  I  am  delighted 
with  Wilberforce." 

The  book  whose  perusal  he  had  thus  commenced  was 
the  "  Practical  View  of  Christianity ; "  and  the  nature  of 
the  effect  which  it  had  upon  his  mind  is  told  by  himself 
in  a  letter  written  ten  years  after  to  his  brother  Alex- 
ander. 

In  that  letter  he  says  :  *'  The  effect  of  a  very  long  con-i 
tinement  upon  myself  was  to  inspire  me  with  a  set  of  very! 
strenuous  resolutions,  under  which  I  wrote  a  journal,  and 
made  many  a  laborious  effort  to  elevate  my  practice  to  the 
standard  of  the  divine  requirements.      During  this  course, 
however,  I  got  little  satisfaction,  and  felt  no  repose.     I 
remember  that,  somewhere  about  the  year  1811,  I  had 
'  Wilberforce's  View  '  put  into  my  hands,  and  as  I  got  on 
in  reading  it,  felt  myself  on  the  eve  of  a  great  revolution  in 
all  my  opinions  about  Christianity.     I  am  now  most  thor- 
oughly of  opinion — and  it  is  an  opinion  founded  on  expe- 
rience— that  in  the  system  of  '  Do  this  and  live,'  no  peace,! 
and    even    no  true   and   worthy   obedience,   can  ever  be  I 
attained.     It  is,  '■Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and' 
thou  shalt  be  saved.'     When  this  belief  enters  the  heart/ 
joy  and  confidence  come  along  with  it.     The  righteousness 
which  we  try  to  work  out  for  ourselves  eludes  our  grasp, 
and  never  can  a  soul  arrive  at  true  or  permanent  rest  in 
the  pursuit  of  this  object.      The  righteousness  which,  by 
faith,   we  put  on,  secures  our  acceptance  with  God,  and 
secures  our  interest  in  his  promises,  and  gives  us  a  part  in 
those  sanctifying  influences  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  do 
with  aid  from  on  high  what  we  never  can  do  without  it. 
We  look  to  God  in  a  new  light :  we  see  him  as  a  reconciled 
Father ;  that  love  to  him  which  tet-ror  scares  away  re-enters 


42  FROM   HIS  CONVERSIOX 

the  heart,  and,  with  a  new  principle  and  a  new  power,  we 
become  new  creatures  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

The  great  change  was  now  accomplished.  After  a  long 
and  toilsome  journey  through  cloud  and  mist,  he  had 
reached  the  summit  of  the  mountain ;  and  as  in  the  clear 
light  of  day  he  looked  behind  and  around  him,  he  no  doubt 
wondered  much  that  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  so  long 
entangled  among  the  shadows.  Not  a  mathematical  chair, 
but  the  pulpit,  now  became  the  platform'  from  which  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  country,  which  it  had  always  been 
his  ambition  to  benefit ;  and  even  within  the  limits  of  his 
own  rural  parish  of  Kilmany  it  was  very  soon  felt  that  he 
had  got  a  fresh  baptism  for  his  work. 

It  was  rumoured  that  at  this  juncture  Chalmers  made  a 
dramatic  display  of  himself  before  his  congregation,  telling 
them  abruptly  and  in  so  many  words  that  he  had  hitherto 
been  walking  in  darkness,  and  had  now  been  brought  out 
into  the  light.  The  story,  on  the  face  of  it,  was  an  impro- 
bable one.  He  never  thus  gave  any  public  intimation  of 
his  conversion.  But  the  anointing  which  he  had  received 
infallibly  bewrayed  itself  to  his  own  j)eople,  and  it  could 
not  long  be  hid  from  the  outside  world  that  a  recruit  of  no 
small  importance  had  been  gained  to  the  cause  of  Evan- 
gelism. 

It  is  most  interesting  here  again  to  glance  through  his 
journal,  and  to  notice  the  straws  which  appear  there  to 
tell  how  the  wind  had  begun  to  blow. 

'■^February  I4,  1811. — Rode  on  to  Dairsie,  and  preached 
a  Fast  sermon  there.  Was  much  pleased  with  Dr.  Maccul- 
loch's  edifying  and  evangelical  prayer.  The  people  were 
most  attentive  ;  and  I  was  gratified  \vith  the  approbation 
of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Macculloch  and  Mrs.  Coutts — a  kind  of 
testimony  that  two  years  ago  I  would  have  despised." 


TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW.  43 

'■'■  March  15. — Called  on  sick  people  in  the  village.  I 
am  a  good  deal  weaned  from  the  ardour  for  scientific  pur- 
suits; and  let  me  direct  my  vindivided  attention  to  theology." 

"  ^^;?•^7  23. — I  am  sensible  of  a  growing  acquiescence  in 
the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel  as  a  scheme  of  recon- 
ciliation for  sinners." 

"  May  1. — Got  a  present  from  Mr.  Tait  of  Tealing 
of  a  sermon  published  by  him  upon  the  conversion  of 
the  Jews,  with  a  complimentary  note.  This  indicates  a 
growing  partiality  for  me  on  the  part  of  the  Evangelical 
clergy." 

'■'July  15. — A  minister,  if  he  gives  his  whole  heart  to 
his  business,  finds  employment  for  every  moment  of  his 
existence ;  and  I  am  every  day  getting  more  in  love  with 
my  professional  duties,  and  more  penetrated  with  a  sense 
of  their  importance." 

'■'■August  11. — Let  me  prepare  for  my  future  sacraments 
a  long  time  before  they  come  round,  and  when  they  do 
come  round,  give  my  whole  strength  to  the  examination  of 
communicants,  to  the  state  of  my  own  heart,  and  the 
impressive  communication  of  my  feelings  at  the  time  of 
delivery."    - 

'■'August  IJf. — From  a  report  of  the  Baptist  missionaries, 
I  am  much  impressed  by  the  worth  and  utility  of  these 
Christians." 

"September  10. — Received  Bible  reports,  and  am  much 
impressed  with  the  utility  of  these  institutions.  0  God, 
may  thy  work  be  my  delight  ! " 

'•'September  IS. — I  have  begun  Baxter's  'Call  to  the 
Unconverted,'  and  intend  it  for  circulation." 

"Sej^temher  29. — Preached  at  Cults  to  an  attentive 
audience.  I  tried  to  impress  my  peculiar  views  on  Mr.  D. 
Wilkie  "  [the  artist]. 


44  FROM   HIS  CONVERSION 

No  complaint  was  now  made  by  Chalmers  that  he  could 

not  find  within  the  sphere  of  his  ministerial  work  suflBcient 

)  scope  for  the  exercise  of  all  his  energies.     He  read  largely, 

but  it  was  chiefly  in  the  literature  of  theology.     He  wrote 

extensively,  but  it  was  on  subjects  bearing  on  the  interests 

of  religion.     And  when  he  had   occasion  to  visit  other 

/  places,  it  was  not  to  refresh  his  spii-it  by  intercourse  with 

i  the    literati,    but   to   use  the  many  opportunities  which 

,  offered  themselves  to  aid  in  the  extension  of  the  kingdom 

'  of  Christ. 

His  church  at  Kilmany  became  crowded;  but  that  was 
not  the  best  proof  he  got  of  the  success  of  his  ministry. 
Another,  and  one  far  more  satisfactory,  was  this,  that  there 
by-and-by  occurred  a  religious  awakening.  Two  young 
men,  meeting  after  service  one  day,  asked  each  other  if 
there  had  not  been  something  peculiar  that  morning  in 
the  preaching.  God's  Spirit  had  in  fact  laid  hold  upon 
them.  They  came  to  their  minister  as  anxious  inquirers, 
and  as  such  became  the  first-fruits  of  a  spiritual  harvest. 

"  The  discovery  that  pardon  and  full  reconciliation  with 
God  are  oflfered  to  all  men  gi-atuitously  in  Christ  had  been 
the  tuming-pnint  in  his  own  spiritual  history;  and  the 
most  marked  characteristic  of  his  pulpit  ministrations  after 
his  conversion  was  the  frequency  and  fervour  with  which 
he  held  out  to  sinners  Christ  and  his  salvation  as  God's 
free  gift,  which  it  was  their  privilege  and  their  duty  at 
once  and  most  gratefully  to  accept." 

"  He  would  bend  over  the  pulpit,"  said  one  of  his 
hearers,  "  and  press  us  to  take  the  gift  as  if  he  held  it  that 
moment  in  his  hand,  and  would  not  be  satisfied  till  every 
one  of  us  had  got  possession  of  it.  And  often  when  the 
sermon  was  over,  and  the  psalm  was  sung,  and  he  rose  to 
pronounce  the  blessing,  he  would  break  out  afresh  with 


TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW.  45 

some  new  entreaty,  unwilling  to  let  us  go  until  he  had 
made  one  more  effort  to  persuade  us  to  accept  of  it." 

We  have  seen  what  he  said  to  Professor  Playfair  in  the 
days  of  his  ignorance,  about  preaching.  Sermons  were 
then  so  easily  composed  that  it  was  the  easiest  thing  in 
the  world  to  throw  them  off.  After  his  change,  he  regarded 
the  pulpit  and  its  claims  in  quite  a  new  light.  "  The 
result  was  a  series  of  discourses,  a  goodly  number  of  which, 
delivered  almost  verbally  as  originally  written,  were 
listened  to  in  after  years  by  congregated  thousands,  in 
Glasgow  and  Edinburgh  and  London,  with  wondering  and 
entranced  admiration."  "They  were  to  a  great  extent 
the  spontaneous  products  of  that  new  love  and  zeal  which 
divine  grace  had  planted  in  his  soul,  the  shape  and  texture 
of  their  eloquence  springing  from  the  combined  operation 
of  all  his  energies — intellectual,  moral,  and  emotional — 
whose  native  movements  were  now  stimulated  into  a  more 
glowing  intensity  of  action  by  that  controlling  motive 
which  concentrated  them  all  upon  one  single  and  sublime 
accomplishment — the  salvation  of  immortal  souls." 

It  was  an  infallible  sign  in  those  days  that  a  man  was 
an  Evangelical,  that  he  took  an  interest  in  the  Bible 
Society.*  The  Church  of  Scotland  had  no  missions  of  its 
own  till  long  afterwards  ;  but  an  early  and  keen  interest 
Avas  taken  by  many  in  it  in  the  circulation  of  the  Word  of 
God.  This  mark  very  speedily  showed  itself  at  Kilmany  ; 
but  at  a  A-ery  early  date  also  Chalmers  manifested  a  deep 


*  The  Rev.  Alexander  Forrester,  minister  of  Linton,  writing  to  a  daugliter  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  of  Kilconquhar,  on  the  occasion  of  her  great  relative's  second 
speech  in  the  General  Assembly,  thus  indicates  what  was  the  current  sentiment 
among  Moderate  ministers :  "  I  am  not  sure  that  your  father  would  have  engaged 
with  the  ardour  with  which  the  minister  of  Kilmany  does  in  missionary  and 
Bible  societies.  For  my  oiim  part,  I  must  oirn  to  you  that  I  have  never  yet  seen 
any  proper  call  to  ns  for  engaging  in  the  measures  of  these  societies ;  and  such  is 
the  feeling  of  this  part  of  this  county  with  very  few  exceptions." 


46  FROM  HIS  CONVERSION 

concern  in  the  direct  evangelization  of  the  world,  antl  not 
a  few  can^till  remember  with  what  a  fresh  and  beautiful 
complacency  he  was  in  the  habit,  to  his  latest  years,  of 
I  telling  how  Andrew  Fuller,  the  friend  of  Carey  and 
the  first  secretary  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  once 
spent  a  couple  of  days  in  his  country  manse. 

^Ir.  Fuller  himself  was  no  less  deeply  interested  in  this 
Scottish  country  minister.  "  I  never  think  of  my  visit  to 
you,"  he  wrote,  "  but  with  pleasure.  After  parting  with 
you,  I  was  struck  with  the  importance  which  may  attach 
to  a  single  mind  receiving  an  evangelical  im]nrssio7i.'' 
There  was,  according  to  the  English  visitor,  just  one  draw- 
back to  him — he  read  his  discourses  instead  of  delivering 
them.  "  If  that  man,"  he  remarked  to  a  friend — "  if 
that  man  would  but  throw  away  his  papers  in  the  pulpit, 
he  might  be  king  of  Scotland."  Mr.  Fuller  was  wrong  for 
once.  Chalmers  never  read  in  a  formal  or  mechanical 
way.  As  the  old  woman  pithily  expressed  it,  his  ^van/ell 
reading.  And,  constituted  as  he  was,  it  would  not  have 
added  to  his  power,  but  the  contrary,  if  he  had  tried 
habitually  to  dispense  with  his  manuscript. 

It  was  during  this  last  period  in  his  history  that 
Chalmers  married  (August  4,  1812)  Miss  Grace  Pratt, 
a  daughter  of  Captain  Pratt  of  the  1st  Royal  Veteran 
Battalion.  He  had  reason  to  know  beforehand  that 
she  was  like-minded  with  himself,  but  he  was  particularly 
delighted  to  find,  when  the  housekeeping  had  fairly  begun, 
tliat  she  was  prepared  "  to  hold  up  her  face  for  all  the 
proprieties  of  a  clergyman's  family,"  and  even  to  extend 
them  beyond  what  he  had  himself  proposed.  What  he 
referred  to  was,  that  at  her  suggestion  the  practice  was 
begun  of  jjaving  family  worship  in  Kilmany  twiss^a  day  ! 
It  is  curiously  significant  to  notice  his  own  struggles  in 


TO  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  GLASGOW.  47 

regard  to  this  liabit  of  family  worship.  For  years,  apparently, 
lie  had  none.  Then  he  began  to  offer  a  prayer  at  night,  and  i 
was  sometimes  tempted  to  omit  even  that  when  anybody 
was  in  the  house  on  whose  sympathy  he  could  not  count. 
By-and-by  he  introduced  the  reading  of  a  chapter  of  the 
Bible.  Worship  on  Sabbath  morning  was  the  next  inno- 
vation. And  at  last,  under  the  kindly  influence  of  his 
wife,  the  institution  was  fully  established. 

One  other  thing  only  may  be  here  noticed.  It  has  been 
seen  that,  when  he  was  first  settled,  the  idea  of  there  being 
anything  objectionable  in  a  man  teaching  in  St.  Andrews, 
and  holding  at  the  same  time  a  country  cure,  appeared  to 
him  simply  preposterous.  Now  things  presented  them- 
selves to  him  in  a  different  light ;  and  when  it  was  pro- 
posed that  Mr.  Ferrie,  who  was  at  the  time  Professor  of 
Civil  History,  should  also  be  appointed  minister  of 
Kilconquhar,  he  was  not  deterred  by  a  regard  for  what 
might  be  called  consistency  from  earnestly  and  persever- 
ingly  resisting  the  arrangement.  Not  that  he  wished  to 
tie  any  one  down  to  such  a  strict  discharge  of  purely 
ministerial  work  as  to  make  the  doing  of  anything  else  an 
offence.  He  himself  was  at  this  time  a  laborious  con- 
tributor to  the  Encydopccdia,  to  the  Instructor,  the  Eclectic 
Review,  &c.  To  use  the  press  for  religious  purposes  he 
lield  to  be  the  duty  of  all  Christian  men  who  could  use  the 
pen.  But  he  knew  by  experience  how  utterly  incompat- 
ible were  the  two  offices  of  minister  and  professor,  and 
with  characteristic  singleness  of  purpose  he  steadfastly  set 
his  face  against  the  continuance  of  such  a  conjunction  in 
the  Church  of  Scotland. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    TRON. 

N  the  autumn  of  1814  the  Tron  Church,  Glas- 
gow, became  vacant  by  the  translation  of  Dr. 
Macgill  i-o  a  chair  in  the  university.  The 
appointment  to  the  vacant  living  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Town  Council ;  and  as  that  body  was  so  far  a 
popular  one,  open  to  be  affected  by  the  religious  currents 
which  were  running  through  the  country,  there  arose  a 
keen  party  contest  about  the  succession,  those  on  the  one 
side  being  Moderates,  those  on  the  other  Evangelicals. 

The  eyes  of  some  among  the  latter  having  been  directed 
toward  Mr.  Chalmers  of  Kilmany,  a  deputation  was  sent 
to  hear  him  preach.  It  so  happened  that  on  the  Sabbath 
selected  by  them  for  this  purpose  he  was  not  at  home,  but 
at  Bendochy,  preaching  a  funeral  sermon  over  the  grave  of 
an  early  friend  of  his,  Mr,  Honey.  If  they  had  found 
him  in  his  own  church,  the  impression  produced  would  no 
doubt  have  been  substantially  the  same  ;  but  the  occasion 
referred  to  was  on  various  accounts  an  extraordinary  one, 
and  they  were  literally  electrified. 

"  I  have  seen,"  says  one  who  was  present,  "  many 
scenes,  and  I  have  heard  many  eloquent  men,  but  this  I 
have  never  seen  equalled,  or  even  imitated.  It  was  not 
learning,  it  was  not  art ;  it  was  the  untaught  and  the  un- 


THE  TROX.  49 

encumbered  incantation  of  genius,  the  mightiest  engine  of 
which  the  world  can  boast." 

The  four  citizens  from  Glasgow  who  were  in  the  crowd 
that  day  went  home  resolved  if  possible  to  accomplish 
Chalmers's  election. 

But  the  task  they  had  set  to  themselves  was  one  of  no 
ordinary  difficulty.  "  We  have  had  a  very  hard  battle  to 
fight,"  they  wrote  ;  "  what  with  the  Duke  of  Montrose, 
Sir  Islay  Campbell,  the  college  interest,  and  the  late  and 
present  provost  against  us,  we  have  had  our  hands  quite 
full,  and  had  to  put  forth  all  our  might." 

Dr.  Jones  of  Lady  Glenorchy's,  Edinburgh,  after  all  was 
over,  writes  thus  to  Chalmers  himself :  *'  The  battle,  the 
great  battle,  has  been  fought  and  won.  Heaven  and  earth 
and  all  the  principalities  and  powers  in  high  places  have 
been  moved, — from  the  great  ofiicers  of  State  at  St.  James's 
and  the  Court  of  Aldermen  in  King  Street,  and  the  Crown 
lawyers  in  Edinburgh,  down  to  the  little  female  piets, 
who  were  taught  to  squall  what  they  did  not  under- 
stand— '  No  fanatics  !  No  Balfourites  !  Rationalists  for 
ever ! '  No  small  stir,  I'll  assure  you,  has  been  in 
that  city,  and  no  such  stir  has  been  there  since  the 
days  of  John  Knox,  it  is  said,  about  the  choice  of  a 
minister." 

It  was  found  that  the  vote  stood  thus  :  for  Chalmers, 
15;  for  Macfarlane,  10;  for  Maclean,  4. 

"No  sooner,"  says  Dr.  Jones,  "had  the  news  reached 
the  town  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday  the  25th  of  Novem- 
ber than  all  the  town  was  in  an  uproar  of  joy, — Kirkmen, 
Burghers,  Antiburghers,  Independents,  and  Baptists,  all 
joining  in  one  shout  of  exultation  !  The  news  had  little 
less  effect,  I  assure  you,  in  this  city.  Every  one  meets 
or  runs  to  his  friend,  through  a  most  heavy  rain,  to  say, 

(636)  4 


50  THE  TRON. 

'  Oil !  have  you  heard  the  good  news  ?  Mr.  Chalmers  is 
elected  to  the  Tron  Kirk  of  Glasgow.' " 

The  cause  of  all  this  jubilation  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Moderatism  had  long  held  undisputed  possession  of  all  the 
high  places  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  victory  at 
Glasgow  was  hailed  as  a  sign  that  the  turn  of  the  tide  had 
come. 

In  the  meantime  Chalmers  himself  was  sorely  perplexed. 
The  rumour  of  his  possible  removal  produced  among  the 
people  to  whom  he  had  been  ministering  for  ten  years  a 
feeling  of  consternation.  They  sent  him  a  petition  ear- 
nestly entreating  him  to  remain,  and  he  was  thrown  again 
and  again  into  successive  floods  of  tenderness  by  renewed 
proofs  of  their  affectionate  regard.  But  he  could  not  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  arguments  for  his  going 
greatly  preponderated,  and  after  much  anxious  thought 
and  prayer,  he  sent,  on  the  14th  of  December,  his  accept- 
ance of  the  call  which,  without  solicitation  on  his  part, 
had  been  addressed  to  him. 

The  attitude  of  his  mind  is  revealed  in  a  very  interest- 
ing way  in  the  statement  which  he  drew  up  of  the  j??'os 
and  cons  which  he  considered  before  he  arrived  at  his  final 
conclusion. 

In  these,  it  is  very  noticeable,  the  bent  of  his  mind  is 
all  toward  removal.  His  reasons  for  going  are  given 
without  qualification  ;  his  reasons  for  remaining  have  in 
each  case  appended  to  them  what  seems  to  liim  a  more  or 
less  sufficient  answer. 

Among  other  things  which  weigh  with  him  in  favour  of 
accepting  the  call,  one  is  that  his  refusal  would  he  a  severe 
blow  "to  the  Christian  party  in  Glasgow."  He  is  en- 
couraged also  to  go  by  the  consideration  that  he  might 
calculate  on  finding  in  a  city  more  stimulus  to  exertion 


THE  TRON.  51 

and  study,  and  "  a  warm  Christian  society  to  revive  the 
deadness  and  barrenness  of  his  own  soul."  Besides,  he 
cannot  help  thinking  of  the  advantage  of  being  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  a  university,  although  he  no  sooner 
mentions  the  attraction  than,  recollecting  the  snares  which 
had  once  met  him  in  that  direction,  he  breathes  a  prayer — 
"  O  my  God,  keep  me  from  being  tempted  from  the 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  could  no  doubt  be  said  on  behalf 
of  Kilmany,  that  it  afforded  a  pleasant  sphere,  the  hearty 
support  of  a  loving  people,  and  undivided  time  for  study. 
But  then,  as  he  argues  with  himself,  "  moving  from  place 
to  place  was  the  general  practice  of  the  first  preachers;" 
"  it  was  possible  that  his  parish  might  even  benefit  by  a 
change;"  and  with  regard  to  the  abundant  leisure,  "  I  have 
languished  out  many  hours  here  for  want  of  stimulus." 

In  short,  he  saw  his  way  to  go ;  but  the  wrench  was  a 
serious  one,  and  more  than  twenty  years  after  he  was 
heard  to  say  that  there  was  more  tearing  of  the  heart- 
strings in  leaving  the  valley  of  Kilmany  than  at  leaving 
all  his  great  parish  in  Glasgow. 

Chalmers's  first  sermon  in  the  metropolis  of  the  west 
was  preached  some  months  before  his  own  settlement 
there.  It  was  delivered  before  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of 
the  Clergy ;  and  as  the  public  curiosity  had  been  keenly 
awakened  about  him,  a  vast  multitude  assembled  to  hear, 
although  the  service  was  held  on  a  week-day.  The  author 
of  "  Peter's  Letters  to  his  Kinsfolk "  happened  to  be 
present  on  the  occasion,  and  in  that  shrewd  and  interesting 
work  the  author  has  described  the  preacher  and  the  im- 
pression produced  by  him.  "  At  first,  no  doubt,"  he  writes, 
"  his  face  is  a  coarse  one;  but  a  mysterious  kind  of  meaning 


52  THE  TRON. 

breathes  from  every  part  of  it.  It  is  very  pale,  and  the 
large  half -closed  eyelids  have  a  certain  drooping  melan- 
choly weight  about  them  which  interested  me  very  much, 
I  understood  not  why.  The  lips,  too,  are  singularly  pen- 
sive in  their  mode  of  falling  down  at  the  sides,  although 
there  is  no  want  of  ricliness  and  vigour  in  their  central 
fulness  of  curve.  The  ujDper  lip,  from  the  nose  downward, 
is  separated  by  a  very  deep  line,  which  gives  a  sort  of 
becoming  firmness  of  expression  to  all  the  lower  part  of 
the  face.  The  eyes  are  light  in  colour,  and  have  a  strange 
dreamy  heaviness  that  conveys  any  idea  rather  than  that 
of  dulness,  but  which  contrasts  in  a  w^onderful  manner 
with  the  dazzling  watery  gleam  they  exhibit  when  ex- 
panded in  their  sockets  and  illuminated  into  all  their 
flame  and  fervour  in  some  moment  of  entranced  en- 
thusiasm. But  the  shape  of  the  forehead  is,  perhaps,  the 
most  singular  ])art  of  the  whole  visage.  It  is,  without 
exception,  the  most  marked  mathematical  forehead  I  ever 
met  with." 

As  to  the  sermon,  the  same  observer  writes  :  "  I  have 
heard  many  men  deliver  sermons  far  better  arranged  in 
regard  to  argument,  and  have  heard  very  many  deliver 
sermons  far  more  uniform  in  elegance  both  of  conception 
and  of  style,  but  most  unquestionably  I  have  never  heard, 
either  in  England  or  Scotland  or  in  anj  other  country,  any 
preacher  whose  eloquence  is  capable  of  producing  an  effect 
so  strong  and  irresistible  as  his." 

His  induction  to  the  Tron  Church  took  place  on  Friday 
the  21st  of  July  1815,  and  on  the  following  Sabbath  he 
was  introduced  to  his  new  charge  by  Sir  Harry  Moncreiff. 
Among  those  present  on  the  occasion  was  Mr.  Simeon  of 
Cambridge. 

"This,  sir,"  Chalmers  wrote,  three  months  later,  to  an 


THE  TRON.  53 

old  friend  of  his  in  the  country — "this,  sir,  is  a  wonderful 
place,  and  I  am  half  entertained  and  half  provoked  by- 
some  of  the  peculiarities  of  its  people.  The  peculiarity 
which  bears  hardest  uj^on  me  is  the  incessant  demand  they 
have,  upon  all  occasions,  for  the  personal  attendance  of  the 
ministers.  Tliey  must  have  four  to  every  funeral,  or  they 
do  not  think  it  has  been  genteelly  gone  through ;  they 
must  have  one  or  more  to  all  the  committees  of  all  the 

societies;  they  must  fall  in  at  every  procession I  gave 

in  to  all  this  at  first,  but  I  am  beginning  to  keep  a  sus- 
picious eye  upon  those  repeated  demands  ever  since  I  sat 
nearly  an  hour  in  grave  deliberation  with  a  number  of 
others  upon  a  subject  connected  with  the  property  of  a 
corporation,  and  that  subject  was  a  gutter,  and  the  question 
was  whether  it  should  be  bought  and  covered  up,  or  let 
alone  and  left  to  lie  open.  I  am  gradually  separating 
myself  from  all  this  trash,  and  long  to  establish  it  as  a 
doctrine,  that  the  life  of  a  town  minister  should  be  what 
the  life  of  a  country  minister  might  be ;  that  is,  a  life  of 
intellectual  leisure,  with  the  option  of  literary  pursuits, 
and  his  entire  time  disposable  to  the  purposes  to  which 
the  apostles  gave  themselves  wholly — that  is,  the  ministry 
of  the  Word  and  j^rayer." 

Deciding  this  great  gutter  question  was  not  the  most 
absurd  business  in  which  he  was  called  upon  to  engage. 
Sitting  on  the  affairs  of  the  town  hospital,  a  warm  debate 
arose  one  day  about  the  kind  of  soup  which  should  be 
administered  to  the  inmates.  Some  argued  for  pork  broth, 
others  for  broth  of  oxhead.  To  settle  this  weighty  point, 
a  quantity  of  both  articles  was  brought  bodily  into  the 
board-room  and  subjected  to  the  test  of  practical  ex- 
amination ;  and,  after  all,  the  conclusion  come  to  was 
no  more  satisfactory  than  that  at  which  Sir  Rodger  de 


54  THE  TRON. 

Coverley  arrived — namely,  that  much  might  be  said  on 
both  sides ! 

Chalmers  found  this  sort  of  thing,  as  he  told  his  friend, 
part  of  a  system.  The  minister  was  associated  with  all 
the  charities  and  most  of  the  educational  establishments 
in  the  city,  and  his  time  was  so  occupied  with  these  that 
it  was  simply  impossible  for  him  to  attend  in  anything 
like  an  effective  way  to  his  parocliial  duties. 

One  of  the  first  things,  then,  to  which  he  addressed 
himself  was  the  getting  rid  of  this  incubus ;  and  although 
his  object  was  not  accomplished  at  once,  nor  without 
taking  the  matter  to  the  pulpit  and  fulminating  about  it, 
he  did  in  the  end  succeed  in  achieving,  not  his  own  eman- 
cipation only,  but  that  also  of  many  of  his  brethren,  who 
had  been  acquiescing  in  the  evil  as  if  it  were  certainly 
inevitable. 

"  Among  the  earliest  visits  made  through  the  families  "  [of 
his  parish],  said  he,  speaking  some  years  afterwards  as  a 
witness  about  pauperism  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
"  I  was  very  much  surprised  at  the  unexpected  cordiality 
of  my  welcome,  the  people  thronging  about  me,  and  re- 
questing me  to  enter  their  houses.  I  remember  I  could 
scarcely  make  my  way  to  the  bottom  of  a  close  in  the 
Saltmarket,  I  was  so  exceedingly  thronged  by  the  people. 
But  I  soon  perceived  that  this  was  in  consequence  of  my 
imagined  influence  in  the  distribution  of  charities ;  and  I 
certainly  did  feel  a  great  recoil,  for  it  was  so  different 
from  the  principle  upon  which  I  had  been  received  with 
cordiality  in  my  country  parish,  where  the  topic  of  their 
temporal  necessities  was  scarcely  ever  mentioned.  I  there- 
fore resolved  to  dissever  myself  from  the  administration  of 
these  charities  altogether.  I  soon  made  the  people  under- 
stand that  I  only  dealt  in  one  article,  that  of  Christian 


THE  TRON.  55 

instruction,  and  that  if  they  chose  to  receive  me  upon  this 
footing  I  should  be  glad  to  visit  them  occasionally.  I  can 
vouch  for  it  that  the  cordiality  of  the  people  was  not  only 
enhanced  but  very  much  refined  in  principle  after  this 
became  the  general  understanding.  Of  the  ten  thousand 
entries  which  I  have  made  at  different  times  into  the 
houses  of  the  poor  in  Glasgow,  I  cannot  recollect  but 
half-a-dozen  instances  in  which  I  was  not  received  with 
welcome," 

So  far  good.  He  was  able  after  this  arrangement  to 
move  through  the  Saltmarket  without  being  thought  of 
chiefly  as  a  charity  commissioner.  But  then  there  was 
his  own  house,  nominally  his  castle.  How  was  he  to 
defend  himself  there  against  the  intrusion  of  a  somewhat 
higher  order  of  seekers,  who  believed,  and  had  good  reason 
to  believe,  that  secular  influence  of  an  important  kind  lay 
in  the  hands  of  the  clergy?  He  saw  no  way  of  meeting 
this  side  of  the  case  but  by  giving  his  mind  upon  it  in 
public.  Accordingly  he  preached  upon  it,  and  in  doing  so 
spoke  of  the  afiliction  under  which  he  groaned  in  a  way 
which  (in  spite  of  the  day  and  place)  must  have  seemed 
half  humorous,  half  pathetic. 

"  How,"  he  asked,  "shall  a  minister  be  able  to  extricate 
himself  from  the  besetting  inconveniences  of  such  an 
arrangement  as  gives  to  the  whole  population  of  a  neigh- 
bourhood a  constant  and  ever-moving  tendency  toward  his 
house  1  The  patronage  with  which,  I  think,  it  is  his  heavy 
misfortune  to  be  encumbered,  gives  him  a  share  in  the 
disposal  of  innumerable  vacancies,  and  each  vacancy  gives 
rise  to  innumerable  candidates,  and  each  candidate  is  sure 
to  strengthen  his  chance  of  success  by  stirring  up  a  whole 
round  of  acquaintances,  who,  in  the  various  forms  of 
written  and  of  personal  entreaty,  discharge  their  wishes 


66  THE  TRON. 

on  the  minister  in  the  shape  of  innumerable  applications. 
It  is  fair  to  observe,  however,  that  the  turmoil  of  all  this 
electioneering  has  its  times  and  its  seasons.  It  does  not 
keep  by  one  in  the  form  of  a  steady  monsoon.  It  comes 
upon  him  more  in  the  resemblance  of  a  hurricane ;  and, 
like  the  hurricanes  of  the  atmosphere,  it  has  its  months  of 
violence  and  its  intervals  of  periodical  cessation.  I  shall 
only  say  that  when  it  does  come,  the  power  of  contempla- 
tion takes  to  itself  wings  and  flees  away." 

But  this  was  not  the  only  kind  of  interruption  to  which 
he  was  exposed.  In  the  autumn  of  1818  his  family  was 
in  the  country,  and  he  was  left  in  Glasgow  to  keep  house 
alone.  During  that  period  he  showed  no  disposition  what- 
ever to  shut  himself  up  from  his  kind.  On  the  contrary, 
his  hospitality  was  unbounded.  Whether  Mrs.  Chalmers 
approved  of  it  or  not,  the  number  of  peoj^le  to  whom  he 
offered  bed  and  breakfast  was  portentous.  But  he  liked 
to  keep  his  time  and  his  menage  in  his  own  hands ;  and 
the  mixture  of  vexation  and  kindliness  which  appears  in 
the  follo\ving  extract  from  a  letter  to  his  wife  is  highly 
amusing  : — 

''  Wednesday. — Wrote  for  the  General  Session,  I  had 
not  sat  long  when  in  came  Miss ,  with  all  the  pleni- 
tude of  some  mighty  doing,  which  turned  out  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  plum-jelly  operation,  which,  greatly  in  op- 
position to  my  wishes,  she  brought  upon  me  whether  I 
would  or  not.  Janet  had  spoken  to  me  some  days  before, 
Avhen  I  told  her  that  you  had  given  no  directions  about  it, 
and  that  I  did  not  want  it.     Janet  now  tells  me  that  she 

told  Miss that  you  had  given  no  orders  about  it,  but 

did  not  like  to  tell  her  that  I  did  not  want  it.  I  told  her 
so  myself,  however ;  but  it  seems  the  materials  were  all 
bought  and  the  operations  begun ;  and  Miss  ,  upon 


THE  TRON.  57 

feeling  corrected  by  my  remark,  spoke  so  as  to  fill  me 
with  a  kind  of  remorse  at  my  severity.  So  I  went  out  on 
a  round  of  visitation,  and  took  her  mother  in  my  tvaij. 
Called  also  on  Mr.  Turpie ;  and  on  coming  back  at  four 

found  the  table  covered  for  me  and  Miss .      She  left 

me  about  six.      The  operation  is  comjjleted  /" 

His  object,  as  he  had  indicated,  was  to  assimilate  the 
life  of  a  town  minister  to  that  of  a  minister  in  the  coun- 
tiy.  That  he  did  not  succeed  perfectly  needs  not  be  said. 
Complete  success  was  impossible.  The  conditions  of  the 
two  states  are  too  radically  different.  Notwithstanding, 
this  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  never  before  had  so  near 
an  approach  been  made  to  the  ideal  which  he  had  con- 
ceived of.  And  when  he  had  so  far  made  good  his  point, 
he  taught  a  lesson  which  has  never  since  been  forgotten. 
It  is  now  by  no  means  an  uncommon  thing  to  find  city 
ministers  whose  i^astoral  superintendence  of  their  flocks  is 
as  thorough  as  was  his  own  in  the  rural  parish  of  Kilmany. 

"  Till  Dr.  Chalmers  came  to  Glasgow,"  says  Mr.  David 
Stow,  "  parochial  Christian  influence  was  a  mere  name ; 
it  was  not  systematic,  it  was  not  understood ;  there  was 
not  the  machinery  for  the  moral  elevation  of  a  town 
population.  The  people  were  let  alone.  Some  of  the 
elders  of  the  Tron  Church  were  excellent  men ;  but  their 
chief  duty  was  to  stand  at  the  plate,  receive  the  free-will 
offerings  of  the  congregation  as  they  entered,  and  dis- 
tribute them  to  the  poor  by  a  monthly  allowance.  Their 
spiritual  duties  were  small,  and  almost  exclusively  con- 
fined to  a  few  of  the  sick." 

Chalmers  set  out  with  the  resolution  to  visit  every 
family  in  his  parish.  As  there  were  ten  thousand  people 
in  it,  this  implied  an  immense  enterprise,  and  the  visita- 
tion he  contemplated  could  not  but  be  very  slight. 


58  THE  TRON. 

As  he  was  toiling  one  day  up  one  of  the  long  stairs  of 
the  Saltmarket,  he  suddenly  turned  to  the  elder  who 
was  accompanying  him  and  asked  what  he  was  thinking 
about.  The  elder  had  been  too  much  occupied  with  the 
burden  of  the  ascent  to  have  been  thinking  of  anything  in 
particular,  and  he  said  so.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  his 
minister,  who,  with  a  humorous  twinkle  in  his  eye,  accused 
him  of  concealing  the  nature  of  his  reflections.  "  I  know 
quite  well,"  he  said,  "  that  if  you  were  to  speak  your 
mind,  you  would  say  that  we  are  putting  the  butter  very 
thinly  on  the  bread." 

In  these  visits  he  did  not  even  pray.  If  he  had  done 
so  in  one  case  he  must  have  done  so  in  all,  and  the  work 
he  had  undertaken  would  not  have  been  accomplished  for 
years.  And  yet,  there  were  occasions  when  a  Avord  fitly 
spoken  left,  in  all  probability,  impressions  which  Avere 
never  afterwards  effaced. 

"  Passing  through  a  house  in  which  he  saw  an  old  man 
reclining,  he  stepped  aside,  bent  over  him,  lifted  up  his 
right  hand,  and  said  simply,  but  with  emphatic  solemnity, 
'  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved.'  Entering  another  house,  in  which  was  an  old 
bedridden  woman,  of  whom  he  had  been  told  beforehand 
that,  of  a  hard  and  severe  character  herself,  she  cherished 
the  darkest  and  most  severe  conceptions  of  the  Deity,  he 
went  up  hastily  to  her  bedside,  and  fixing  her  attention 
by  the  very  vehemence  of  his  utterance,  he  said,  '  Now,  I 
have  just  come  to  tell  you  that  God  Almighty  has  no  ill 
will  at  you  :  I  want  you  to  understand  that  he  has  a 
perfect  good  will  to  you  ;' — leaving  her  more  startled,  per- 
haps more  convinced,  than  she  would  have  been  by  any 
lengthened  argument." 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that,  because  these 


THE  TRON.  59 

visits  were  so  hasty,  he  left  any  district  without  giving  to 
all  the  people  in  it  an  opportunity  of  hearing  the  gospel 
from  his  lips. 

Tlie  method  he  followed  is  indicated  in  his  diary  : — 
"  Along  with  Mr.  C ,  had  another  visitation.  Ad- 
dressed two  rooms  full  of  people  at  a  door  which  opened 
to  each  of  them.  I  have  a  great  satisfaction  in  this  part 
of  my  duty." — "Went  through  Norris  Land.  Drank  a 
hurried  tea  in  the  parish  with  Mr.  Ure,  and  went  back  to 
Norris  Land  at  eight,  where  I  held  forth  to  a  motley  as- 
semblage of  a  hundred  people  at  least.  I  had  great  free- 
dom and  satisfaction  in  this  work  ;  and,  after  it  was  over, 
received  many  polite  attentions  fi'om  the  genteeler  of  the 
auditory."  — "  Went  through  about  two  hundred  and 
thirty  people,  and  drank  tea  at  Mr.  Brown's ;  then,  at 
eight,  delivered  an  address,  in  one  of  the  houses,  to  an 
assemblage  consisting  of  eighty-five  people.  Have  great 
comfort  in  this  work." 

At  the  time  these  meetings  were  held  he  was  in  the 
height  of  his  popularity,  and  every  Sabbath-day  his  church 
(holding  fourteen  hundred  people)  was  thronged  by  eager 
and  admiring  multitudes ;  yet,  we  may  safely  say,  he  had 
more  "  comfort  "  in  the  unpretending  services  which  he 
held  in  the  Closes  than  he  had  in  the  great  congregations 
which  assembled  in  the  Tron. 

One  thing,  among  many,  which  the  visitations  revealed, 
was  the  lamentable  amount  of  ignorance  which  prevailed 
among  the  young.  To  meet  this  evil,  he  instituted  a 
number  of  Sabbath  schools ;  and,  in  order  that  these  might 
be  as  effective  as  possible,  he  located  them  in  distinctly  de- 
fined districts,  making  these  districts  in  no  case  over  large, 
and  confiding  the  oversight  of  them  to  competent  agents. 
His  own  enthusiasm  soon  infected  others ;  and  among  the 


60  THE  TRON. 

elders  and  young  people  of  liis  congregation  he  easily 
found  as  raany  willing  workers  as  he  could  employ.  Tlien 
the  parochial  system,  which  he  had  seen  in  such  effective 
operation  in  the  country,  was  made  to  embrace,  as  far  as 
could  be  at  the  time,  one  gi'eat  and  necessitous  parish  in 
the  city. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  very  much  out  of  the  sight  of 
the  world,  the  Tron  Church  was  being  made,  Sabbath  after 
Sabbath,  a  theatre  for  the  display  of  an  eloquence  which 
many  believed  to  be  unprecedented ;  and  the  country  had 
now  been  thoroughly  wakened  up  to  realize  that  a  pulpit 
orator  had  appeared  of  the  highest  order. 

"  I  know  not  what  it  is,"  wrote  Lord  Jeffrey,  the  great 
critic  of  the  time,  "  but  there  is  something  remarkable 
about  that  man.  It  reminds  me  more  of  what  one  reads 
of  as  the  effect  of  the  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  than  any- 
thing I  ever  saw." 

At  the  invitation  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
Chalmers  had  gone  up  to  the  metropolis  in  May  1817,  to 
preach  an  anniver.sary  sermon,  and  there  the  world  had 
literally  run  after  him.  What  helped  to  that  was  the 
pubKcation  previously  of  "  The  Astronomical  Discourses." 
These  discourses,  delivered  on  week  days  to  crowds  in 
Glasgow,  produced  an  extraordinary  impression  on  those 
who  heard  them  ;  and,  when  they  were  printed,  they  be- 
came the  rage  all  over  the  country.  "  They  were,"  says 
Hazlitt,  who  was  himself  carried  away  with  the  general 
rush — "  they  Avere  the  darlings  of  watering-places,  were  laid 

:^in  the  windows  of  inns,  and  were  to  be  met  with  in  all 
places  of  public  resort."     Coming  out  about  the  same  time 

J  as  one  of  Scott's  novels,  they  ran  a  neck  and  neck  race 
with  it  in  the  public  estimation — nine  editions  and  twenty 
thousand  copies  being  exhausted  within  the  year. 


THE  TROX.  Gl 

On  this  wave  of  popularity  he  had  gone  to  London,  and 
met  there  with  something  like  an  ovation.  \Yherever  he 
preached — in  Surrey  Chapel,  in  London  Wall,  in  Swallow 
Street — the  multitudes  who  went  to  hear  him  were  immense, 
and  included  many  of  the  most  notable  men  of  the  day. 

"  All  the  world,"  wrote  Mr.  Wilberforce,  "  is  wild 
about  Dr.  Chalmers.  He  seems  truly  pious,  simple,  un- 
assuming. Sunday,  25th. — Ofi"  early,  with  Canning,  Hus- 
kisson,  and  Lord  Binning,  to  the  Scotch  Church,  London 
Wall,  to  hear  Dr.  Chalmers.  Vast  Crowds.  Bobus 
Smith,  Lords  Elgin,  Harrowby,  (fee.  I  was  surprised  to 
see  how  gi'eatly  Canning  was  aflfected  ;  at  times  he  was 
quite  melted  to  tears.  Tlie  passage  which  most  aifected  him 
was  at  the  close  of  the  discourse.  He  is  reported  to  have 
said,  that  although  at  first  he  felt  uneasy,  in  consequence 
of  Chalmers's  manner  and  accent,  yet  that  he  had  never 
been  so  arrested  by  any  oratory.  '  The  tartan,'  so  runs 
the  speech  attributed  to  him,  '  beats  us  all.'" 

"  The  attention  which  your  sermons  have  excited," 
wi'ote  Robert  Hall  to  him,  "  is  probably  unequalled  iii 
modern  literature  ;  and  it  must  be  a  delightful  reflection 
that  you  are  advancing  the  cause  of  religion  in  innumer- 
able multitudes  of  your  fellow-creatures  whose  faces  you 
will  never  behold  till  the  last  day.  My  ardent  prayer  is, 
that  talents  so  rich  in  splendour,  and  piety  so  fervent, 
may  long  be  continued  to  be  faithfully  and  assiduously 
devoted  to  the  service  of  God  and  of  your  generation." 

Returning  to  Glasgow  after  all  this,  his  popularity  be- 
came, of  course,  greater  than  ever.  All  Scotland  ex- 
perienced a  sensible  exultation  that  one  whose  very  accent 
at  once  proclaimed  his  nationality,  was  recognized  as  a  man 
of  matchless  eloquence  by  the  greatest  preachers  and  states- 
men of  the  time. 


62  THE  TRON. 

But  he  himself  was  not  carried  away  with  all  the  ap- 
plause. If,  indeed,  it  had  not  gratified  him,  he  would 
not  have  been  human.  Occasionally  there  appear,  even  in 
his  journal,  confessions  which  show  that  he  was  not  alto- 
gether unconscious  of  the  stirrings  of  vanity.  But  in  his 
sober  moods,  and  these  were  most  habitual,  the  popu- 
larity he  met  with  was  rather  a  burden  to  him  than  other- 
wise. 

In  one  place  he  speaks  with  a  sigh  of  "a  most  oppres- 
sive multitude."  At  another  time  he,  in  good  set  terms, 
almost  denounces  the  kind  of  fuss  and  fury  of  which  he 
was  so  constantly  the  object. 

"There  is,"  says  he,  "a  high  and  far-sounding  popu- 
larity which  is  a  most  worthless  article,  felt  by  all  who 
have  it  most  to  be  greatly  more  oppressive  than  gratify- 
ing ;  a  popularity  of  stare,  and  pressure,  and  animal  heat, 
and  a  whole  tribe  of  other  annoyances  which  it  brings 
around  the  person  of  its  unfortunate  victim  ;  a  popularity 
which,  with  its  head  among  storms,  and  its  feet  on  the 
treacherous  quicksands,  has  nothing  to  lull  the  agonies  of 
its  tottering  existence  but  the  hosannas  of  a  drivelling 
generation," 

One  evening  Dr.  Wardlaw  heard  Chalmers  preach  in 
Glasgow.  The  sermon  had  been  advertised,  and  the  rush 
to  hear  him  was  tremendous.  At  the  close,  Wardlaw 
joined  him  in  the  vestry,  and  the  two  friends,  who  lived 
near  each  othei',  walked  homeward  together. 

"  On  the  way  home,"  says  Dr.  Wardlaw,  "  he  expressed, 
in  his  pithy  manner,  his  great  annoyance  at  such  crowds. 
*  I  preached  the  same  sermon,'  said  he,  '  in  the  morning ; 
and  for  the  very  purpose  of  preventing  the  oppressive 
annoyance  of  such  a  densely-crowded  place,  I  intimated 
that  I  should  preach  it  again  in  the  evening.'     And  with 


THE  TRON  63 

most  ingenuous  guilelessness  he  added,  *  Have  you  ever 
tried  that  plan?'  I  did  not  smile — I  laughed  outright. 
'  No,  no,'  I  replied,  '  my  good  friend ;  there  are  but  very- 
few  of  us  that  are  under  the  necessity  of  having  recourse 
to  the  use  of  means  for  getting  a  thin  audience.'  He  en- 
joyed the  joke,  and  he  felt,  though  he  modestly  disowned, 
the  compliment." 

How,  amid  the  manifold  distractions  which  he  could 
not  possibly  avoid,  Chalmers  was  able  to  maintain  his 
high  level  of  pulpit  preparation,  and  even  to  write  elabo- 
rate articles  for  reviews  (it  is  to  this  period  that  his  first 
paper  on  Pauperism  in  the  Edinburgh  belongs),  is  ex- 
plained in  his  journals.  He  had  an  extraordinary  power 
of  abstraction ;  so  that  while  he  was  moving  about  from 
place  to  place — in  wayside  inns,  or  when  spending  parts 
of  days  in  the  houses  of  friends — he  could  withdraw  into 
himself  at  any  moment,  and  give  himself  up  to  "  severe  com- 
position." Some  of  his  Astronomical  Discourses  were 
written  partly  in  this  disjointed  way,  while  the  common 
impression  at  the  time  was  that  he  was  burning  over  them 
the  midnight  oil.  The  fact  was  that  he  did  not  burn  much 
midnight  oil  at  any  time.  Rather,  like  many  of  the  men 
who  have  done  most,  he  was  an  early  riser,  and  between 
six  and  nine,  even  on  winter  mornings,  he  had  already 
accomplished  much  of  the  work  which  in  other  cases  would 
at  the  latter  hour  be  only  just  beginning. 

But  what  specially  draws  the  heart  to  him  all  through 
this  period  is  his  unaffected  piety  and  warm-heartedness. 
His  account  of  his  first  visit  to  Kilmany,  after  he  had  left 
it  for  Glasgow,  is  most  touching. 

"The  first  parish  hamlet  I  landed  at,"  he  writes,  "was 
at  the  back  of  Mountquhannie,  where  I  turned  the  popula- 
tion out,  and  went  through  a  gi'eat  deal  of  speering  and 


64  THE  TRON. 

hand-shaking.  I  did  the  same  among  all  the  houses  imme- 
diately around  Mountquhannie.  One  of  my  female  scholars 
wept  aloud,  and  I  was  much  moved  myself." 

"  My  whole  sensations  in  this  place,"  he  goes  on  to  tell, 
"  are  mixed  up  with  a  painful  and  melancholy  tenderness. 
I  have  made  a  great  sacrifice  of  personal  comfort  by  going 
to  Glasgow ;  and  all  that  I  read  about  the  poor  and  the 
riots,  and  the  calling  upon  ministers  to  exert  themselves, 
adds  to  the  repulsion  I  feel  toward  that  city." 

"Robin  Dewar  (the  carrier),"  he  adds,  "came  from 
Cupar  with  a  letter  to  me.  I  had  a  sentimental  interview 
^vith  him  at  the  kitchen  portico." 

It  was  sometimes  said  that  Chalmers  had  rather  a 
habit  of  "taking  fancies"  to  people;  that  his  bright  and 
kindly  imagination  was  easily  moved  to  throw  around 
such  objects  of  special  interest  more  light  than  justly 
belonged  to  them.  Whether  that  was  so  or  not,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  was  capable  of  forming  most  romantic  attach- 
ments— his  love  for  Mr.  James  Anderson  of  Dundee  and 
^Mr.  Tliomas  Smith  of  Glasgow  being  truly  wonderful. 
In  this  depth  and  tenderness  of  his'affections  lay  the  secret 
of  a  great  part  of  his  power  over  men.  It  was  always  felt 
that  he  was  no  mere  logician,  forcing  convictions  by  his 
reasonings,  but  a  loving-hearted  man,  influencing  others  by 
the  very  fulness  of  his  humanity. 

Above  all,  his  intercourse  with  God  was  most  beau- 
tifully childlike.  Here  he  is  in  March  1818  lamenting  his 
unspirituality  ; — 

"  Gtli.  Have  not  yet  attained  such  a  walk  with  God,  that 
in  looking  to  the  day  that  is  gone  I  can  see  anything  like 
the  general  complexion  of  godliness. 

"  7th.  Cannot  yet  sjoeak  to  my  walk  with  God.  Will 
a  quiet  confidence  in  Christ  not  bring  this  about  ? 


THE  TKON,  ■  65 

"  8th.  Not  yet.  O  my  God,  help  me  !  Let  me  do  what 
is  obviously  right,  and  God  will  bless  me  with  the  frame 
and  the  manifestation  I  long  after. 

"  9th.  Not  yet !  Trust  that  I  am  finding  my  way  to 
Christ  as  the  Lord  my  strength. 

''18tli.   Not  yet  !     But,  I  trust,  better." 

His  father  died  four  months  later.  Writing  on  the  day 
of  his  funeral,  he  says  :  "  He  died  in  peace,  and,  I  am 
confident,  is  now  in  glory.  He  was  a  veteran  Christian, 
who  had  long  walked  in  the  good  old  way  of  justification 
by  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  and  sanctification  by  the 
Spirit  which  is  at  His  giving." 

And  this  testimony  to  his  father's  piety,  and  the  basis 
of  it,  leads  him  on  to  reiterate  with  increased  clearness 
and  emphasis  his  view  of  the  way  of  salvation  : — 

"  I  feel  that  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  unmixed  with 
baser  materials,  untempered  with  strange  mortar,  unvi- 
tiated  by  human  pretensions  of  any  sort,  is  the  solid  rest- 
ing-place on  Avhich  a  man  is  to  lay  his  acceptance  before 
God,  and  that  there  is  no  other ;  that  to  attempt  a  com- 
position between  grace  and  works  is  to  spoil  both,  and 
is  to  deal  a  blow  both  at  the  character  of  God  and  to  the 
cause  of  practical  holiness.  This  is  my  firm  conviction ; 
but  I  trust  you  understand  that  it  may  be  a  firm  convic- 
tion without  being  a  bright  and  rapture-giving  perception. 
I  know  that  it  should  enrapture  me — that  it  should  throw 
me  into  the  transports  of  gratitude — that  it  should  make 
me  feel  as  a  man  in  all  the  triumphs  of  confident  anticipa- 
tion. But  I  have  occasional  visitations  of  darkness  and 
dulness  and  spiritual  lethargy,  and  then,  like  Rutherford, 
I  would  like  to  believe  in  the  dark — to  keep  my  hold  in 
the  midst  of  all  my  darkness  and  all  my  misgivings — to 
humble  myself  because  of  my  cold  insensibility,  but  still 

(636)         "  5 


66  THE  TRON-. 

to  trust  determmedly— to  trust  in  the  name  and  right- 
eousness of  my  Lord." 

"I  think,"  he  adds,  "that  holiness  is  looked  upon  by 
some  evangelical  writers  in  rather  a  lame  and  inadequate 
point  of  view.  They  value  it  chiefly  as  an  e\ddence  of 
justifying  faith.  They  are  right  in  saying  that  it  gives  no 
title  to  God's  favour ;  but  they  are  wrong  in  saying  that 
its  chief  use  is  to  ascertain  that  title,  or  to  make  that  title 
clear  to  him  who  possesses  it.  It  is,  in  fact,  chiefly  valu- 
able on  its  oion  account.  It  forms  part,  and  an  efiective 
part  of  salvation.  It  may  be  considered  our  entrance  upon 
heaven.  Christ  came  to  give  us  a  justifying  righteousness, 
and  he  also  came  to  make  us  holy ;  not  chiefly  for  the 
purpose  of  evidencing  here  our  possession  of  a  justifying 
righteousness — not  for  so  temporary  an  object  as  this — but 
for  the  purpose  of  forming  and  fitting  us  for  a  blessed 
eternity. " 

Tliis  was  the  doctrine  which  he  preached  in  the  Tron  ; 
and  how  much  lasting  fruit  there  came  of  it,  the  Day  will 
declare. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ST.  John's. 

HE  magistrates  of  Glasgow  did  not  at  all  agree 
with  Chalmers  as  to  the  spiritually  necessi- 
tous state  of  the  city.  He — painting  with  the 
big  brush  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  usin^ 
— said  that  twenty  more  churches  were  needed,  and  they 
thought  such  a  statement  simply  ridiculous.  But  they 
went  with  him  so  far.  They  admitted  that  some  more 
church  accommodation  was  required ;  and  to  show  that 
they  held  to  this  conviction  honestly,  they  built  St.  John's. 
More  than  that — on  the  5th  of  June  1818  they  offered  the 
incumbency  of  it  to  the  minister  of  the  Tron. 

What  inducement  was  there  for  Chalmers  to  move  from 
one  church  to  another  in  the  same  place  ?  St.  John's  was 
larger  than  the  Tron ;  it  was  situated  in  a  locality  mainly 
inhabited  by  the  working-classes  ;  and  there  was,  to  begin 
with,  no  congregation.  The  principal  inducement  was 
this  :  that  in  the  older  parishes  the  Establishment  was  so 
hampered  by  old  laws  and  regulations,  that  he  had  no 
freedom  to  do  a  great  many  things  which  he  thought  to 
be  necessary  in  the  interest  of  religion,  while  in  the  new 
parish  which  he  was  invited  to  occupy  he  was  expressly 
promised  liberty  to  do  very  much  as  he  liked. 

Tempted  by  this  promise,  he  accepted  the  appointment ; 


68  ST.  John's. 

and  when  the  building  was  finished,  and  everything  else 
satisfactorily  arranged,  he  was  introduced  to  his  new  charge 
on  the  26th  of  August  1819,  by  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson. 

The  sittings  were  let  first  to  such  residents  within  the 
parish  as  wished  for  them ;  next,  to  any  who  desired  to 
follow  him  from  the  Tron ;  and,  finally,  to  all  and  sundry 
who  made  application.  At  the  close  of  this  process  it  was 
not  found  that  any  vacant  space  remained.  The  congre- 
gation was  found  without  difficulty. 

But  the  district  had  to  be  operated  on,  and  to  this  work 
he  addressed  himself  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  one  who 
believed  that  he  was  now  about  to  exhibit  the  practicability 
of  plans  which  it  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  nation 
to  apply  everywhere. 

He  had  long  been  thoroughly  convinced  that  pauperism 
-could  never  be  effectually  met  by  means  of  a  poor  law,  or 
a  system  of  legal  assessment.  He  held  that  under  such  a 
system  the  independence  of  the  people  was  injuriously 
affected,  and  charity  often  and  grossly  abused.  He  was 
satisfied  that  in  large  towns,  as  well  as  in  small  rural 
parishes,  all  that  needed  to  be  done  could  be  done  better, 
more  cheaply  and  more  efficiently,  by  the  exercise  of  a 
wise  Christian  benevolence ;  and  one  of  the  things  he  had 
most  at  heart  in  undertaking  the  oversight  of  St.  John's 
was  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  theories  by  showing  them  in 
practical  operation. 

The  experiment  which  he  proposed  to  make  was  on  a 
large  scale.  There  wei^e  ten  thousand  people  in  the  parish, 
and  the  cost  of  its  pauperism  had  hitherto  been  £1400  a  year. 
Nevertheless,  he  offered  to  relinquish  all  claim  on  the  fund 
raised  by  assessments,  and  to  undertake  to  support  the 
poor  out  of  the  voluntary  contributions  received  at  the 
church  door.     These  contributions  were  considerable,  but 


ST.  John's.  69 

they  did  not  amount  to  anything  like  the  sum  which  has 
been  named  ;  and  that  the  scheme  succeeded  (as  it  did 
conspicuously)  was  due  entirely  to  the  excellent  manage- 
ment which  husbanded  the  resources  of  the  parish,  and 
prevented  any  of  them  from  running  to  worse  than  waste. 

How  this  was  done  can  be  explained  in  a  sentence. 
The  parish  was  divided  into  districts.  Each  of  these  was 
placed  under  the  charge  of  an  elder  and  a  deacon.  The 
really  poor  in  it  were  ascertained  by  means  of  personal 
visitation.  And  while  the  vicious  were  utterly  discoun- 
tenanced, and  work  was  provided  as  far  as  possible  for 
those  who  were  willing  to  live  by  their  own  industry,  no 
one  was  suffered  to  remain  in  a  state  of  want  who  was  a 
genuine  object  of  charity. 

At  first  it  was  supposed  by  the  ne^er-do-ioells  that  better 
days  had  dawned  upon  them  ;  that  the  doles  made  to  such 
as  themselves  would  be  more  generous  and  indiscriminating 
than  ever.  But  they  soon  found  out  their  mistake.  "  The 
scrutiny  to  which  each  case  was  subjected  was  patiently, 
minutely,  and  even  searchingly  conducted.  It  was  soon 
j)erceived  that  the  very  last  thing  which  a  deacon  would 
allow  was  that  any  family  in  the  pai-ish  should  sink  into 
the  degraded  condition  of  being  chargeable  on  the  parish 
funds.  The  drunken  were  told  to  give  up  their 
drunkenness,  and  that  until  they  did  so  their  case  would 
not  even  be  considered ;  the  idle  were  told  to  set  in- 
stantly to  work,  and  if  they  complained  that  work  could 
not  be  gotten,  by  kindly  application  to  employers  they 
were  helped  to  obtain  it ;  the  improvident  were  warned 
that  if  with  such  resources  of  income  as  they  had  or  might 
have  they  chose  to  squander  and  bring  themselves  to  want, 
they  must  just  bear  the  misery  of  their  own  procuring." 

The  machinery  set  agoing  wa.s  thus  not  used  simply  to 


70  ST.  John's. 

relieve  destitution.  It  was  made  a  powerful  moral  force 
for  its  prevention  and  cure.  And  the  results  which 
followed,  although  they  were  quite  what  Chalmers  him- 
self anticipated,  took  everybody  else  by  surprise.  What 
could  formerly  be  accomplished — and  that  imperfectly — 
at  an  outlay  of  £1400  a  year  was  now  done  very  much 
more  satisfactorily  for  £280  a  year.  The  church-door  col- 
lections in  this  way  yielded  a  superabundant  supply  of 
means,  and  Vjy  universal  consent  <£500  of  the  overplus  was, 
after  a  time,  devoted  to  endowing  a  school. 

Nor  could  it  be  said  that  the  success  of  the  scheme  was 
due  to  the  extraordinary  personal  popularity  of  Chalmers. 
The  same  system  was  continued  in  the  locality  after  he 
had  left  it,  and  here  is  what  could  be  said  about  it  by  his 
successor,  Dr.  Macfarlan, — 

"The  experiment  of  sixteen  months,  during  which  I  was 
minister  of  St.  John's,  confirmed  the  favourable  opinion 
which  I  previously  entertained  of  the  system  :  it  worked 
Avell  in  all  respects.  With  an  income  from  collections  not 
much  exceeding  £300  we  kept  down  the  pauperism  of  a 
parish  containing  a  population  of  ten  thousand ;  and  I 
know  from  actual  observation  that  the  poor  were  in  better 
condition,  and,  excepting  the  worthless  and  profligate  who 
applied  for  and  were  refused  assistance,  were  more  con- 
tented and  happy  than  the  poor  in  the  other  parishes  of 
Scotland." 

It  is  a  pity  that  so  Christian  a  scheme  could  not  have 
been  permanently  sustained,  even  in  one  city  parish.  But 
i  it  had  always  been  viewed  with  hostility  by  various  parties, 
and  after  eighteen  years  it  was  given  up ;  and  now,  in  the 
divided  state  of  Scotland,  it  would  be  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  revive  it.  What  greatly  grieved  Chalmers, 
however,  was  that  its  abandonment  was  generally  spoken 


ST.   JOHX'S.  71 

of  as  the  result  of  failure.  To  this  inference  he  objected 
strongly.  His  faith  in  the  system  continued  unshaken  to 
the  last,  and  although,  like  the  rest  of  us,  he  had  to 
acquiesce  in  the  inevitable,  he  was  never  reconciled  to  a 
legal  poor  law. 

The  sustenance  of  the  poor,  however,  was  but  one  of 
the  objects  which  specially  interested  him  in  St.  John's. 
When  he  began  to  visit  in  the  Tron  he  had  found  gross 
ignorance  prevailing  among  the  young,  and  he  had  tried 
to  meet  the  evil  by  the  institution  of  Sabbath  schools. 
But  this  expedient  did  not  go  deep  enough  to  meet  the 
case,  and  he  addressed  himself  to  the  establishment  of 
schools  in  which  the  poor  children  of  the  parish  might  get 
a  good  Christian  education  during  the  week. 

He  took  the  first  step  in  this  direction  within  a  month 
of  his  settlement ;  when,  calling  together  a  few  members 
of  his  new  congregation,  he  submitted  to  them  this  resolu- 
tion :  "  That  there  should,  in  the  first  instance,  and  as  soon 
as  possible,  be  raised  by  subscription  a  sum  of  money 
deemed  adequate  to  the  erection  of  one  fabric,  to  include 
two  school-houses  and  two  teachers'  houses ;  which,  when 
completed,  shall  in  all  time  thereafter  be  exclusively  occu- 
2)ied  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  parish  of  St.  John's." 

The  proposal  was  cordially  agreed  to.  Chalmers  set  an 
example  of  liberality  by  subscribing  £100.  Within  a 
week  or  two  a  sum  of  £1200  was  raised.  In  July  1820 
the  building  was  ready  for  occupation.  And  thus  an 
enterprise  was  launched  from  which  incalculable  good  has 
followed.  For  not  merely  was  this  first  school  succeeded 
by  others  in  St.  John's,  but  the  idea  was  taken  up  else- 
where, and  a  great  impulse  was  given  to  the  cause  of 
education  all  over  the  country.  His  interest  in  the  schools 
was  immense.     He  was  almost  a  daily  visitor  to  one  or 


72  ST.  John's. 

other  of  tbem.  Ajxd  when  strangers  of  importance  came 
to  see  him — as  was  frequently  the  case — one  of  the  lions 
which  he  invariably  took  them  to  view  was  the  system  of 
educational  establishments  which  he  had  been  enabled  to 
set  agoing.  Before  he  left  Glasgow,  he  could  point  to  over 
seven  hundred  children  who  were  recei^'ing  first-rate  in- 
struction through  his  instrumentality. 

During  two  of  the  years  of  his  St.  John's  incumbency 
he  was  assisted  in  all  his  labours  by  Edwakd  Irving. 
Irving  had  not,  to  begin  with,  found  any  suitable  niche 
for  himself.  He  was  not,  in  the  ordinary  sen.se,  a  popular 
preacher,  and  there  was  no  patron  Avith  whom  he  had  any 
influence.  Discouraged  by  the  aspect  of  things,  he  had 
almost  come  to  the  conclusion  of  expatriating  himself, 
when  his  gifts  happily  came  to  be  recognized  by  the  two 
most  famous  Scottish  churchmen  of  the  time.  Dr.  Andrew 
Thomson  one  day  asked  him  to  preach  in  St.  George's, 
and  told  him  that  he  would  have  among  his  hearers  Dr. 
Chalmers  of  Glasgow.  The  consequence  was  that  he  was 
invited  to  St.  John's ;  and  a  very  highly  favoured  people 
indeed  were  they  who  were  permitted  to  sit  at  the  feet  of 
two  such  men,  and  hear  from  the  one  lectures  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  from  the  other  lectures  on  St. 
Luke. 

The  two  "  sorted"  together  admirably.  Here,  for  exam- 
ple, is  a  fine  sketch : — 

"  Entering  the  school-room  in  Macfarlane  Street  one 
Monday  forenoon,  he  said  to  Mr.  Aitken  [the  teacher]: 
*  ^ly  family  are  at  Kirkcaldy ;  as  I  wish  to  have  an  hour's 
easy  chat  with  you  and  !Mr.  Macgi'egor  [another  teacher], 
will  you  just  come  up  at  three  o'clock  and  have  a  steak 
wdth  !Mr.  Irving  and  myself  in  the  vestry  V  In  company 
•with  Mr.  Irving,  he  called  as  the  schools  were  dismissing, 


ST.  John's.  73 

and  the  two  ministers  and  the  two  teachers  proceeded  to 
the  vestry.  The  table  was  set;  and  John  Graham,  the 
beadle,  officiated  as  waiter.  Tales  of  the  school  and  out 
of  the  school  followed  close  upon  each  other.  '  I  am 
afraid,'  said  Dr.  Chalmers  to  one  of  the  teachers,  '  that 
your  labour  is  not  of  the  right  sort — too  exhausting.'  Mr. 
Aitken  mentioned  that  Dr.  Bell  from  India  had  called  the 
previous  day  between  sermons  desiring  to  see  the  class- 
rooms. '  I  had  a  call  from  him,'  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  '  this 
morning.  I  was  lying  awake  in  my  old  woman's  room 
[while  his  family  was  away  he  was  living  in  very  humble 
lodgings  in  the  heart  of  his  parish],  cogitating  whether  I 
should  get  up  or  not,  when  I  heard  a  heavy  step  in  the 
kitchen ;  and  the  door  opening,  and  the  syjeaker  entering,  a 
rough  voice  exclaimed,  "  Can  this  be  the  chamber  of  the 
great  Dr.  Chalmers  1"  ' — '  And  what  did  you  say  V  inquired 
Mr.  Irving,  who  enjoyed  exceedingly  the  ridiculousness  of 
the  question.  With  a  quiet  smile  and  inimitable  archness, 
accompanied  by  frequent  shutting  of  his  eyelids — '  I  even 
told  him,'  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  '  that  it  was,  and  invited 
him  to  stay  to  breakfast  with  me.  I  knew  that  Mr. 
Collins  was  to  be  out  with  a  proof,  and  was  glad  to  think 
that  the  discussion  between  the  merits  of  his  school  system 
and  the  Scottish,  which  I  knew  was  soon  to  follow,  would 
be  supported  by  one  who  I  suspected  was  more  than  a 
match  for  him.' — '  Well,'  said  Mr.  Irving,  '  and  how  did 
it  txirn  up?' — '  Mr.  Collins  arrived  as  I  expected,  and  to  it 
they  set  tooth  and  nail.'— 'And  the  result?'  —  'Collins 
was  too  many  for  him.'  The  hour  filled  up  with  such 
pleasant  talk,  the  two  teachers  returned  to  their  school- 
rooms, and  the  two  ministers  to  their  round  among  their 
parishioners." 

Again: — "At  an  agency   tea-party,    Mr.   Irving,   who 


74  ST.  John's. 

had  just  returned  from  a  tour  in  Ireland,  related  some 
amusing  jjarticulars  of  his  perambulations  through  the 
liberties  of  Dublin.  I  entered,  said  he,  a  miserable 
cabui,  in  which  an  old  woman  was  smoking  a  pipe  by  the 
fire.  Seeing  three  coarse  portraits  on  the  wall,  I  asked 
her  who  they  were.  '  Sure,  that's  St.  Paul  on  the  right.' 
—'And  this]'— *  An'  sure  isn't  that  St.  Peter.'— 'And 
he  in  the  centre?' — 'And  don't  you  know  Pat  Donolly, 
the  bruiser? — sure  everybody  knows  him  !'  " 

During  this  period  of  his  life  his  pastoral  labours  were 
not  merely  abundant,  but  overwhelming. 

"  I  spend,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "  four  days  a  week 
visiting  the  people,  in  company  with  the  agents  of  the 
various  districts  over  which  I  expatiate.  I  last  week 
overtook  between  seven  hundred  and  eight  hundred  people, 
and  have  gi'eat  pleasure  in  the  movement.  This  I  am 
generally  done  with  in  the  forenoon,  and  then  dine  either 
at  the  vestry  or  in  a  friend's  house.  In  addition  to  this  I 
have  had  an  agency  tea  every  night  except  yesternight; 
and  in  a  few  evenings  more  I  exj^ect  to  overtake  the 
whole  agency  of  my  parish.  At  nine  I  go  out  to  family 
worship  in  some  house  belonging  to  the  district  of  my 
present  residence,  where  I  assemble  the  people  of  the  land 
or  close  vicinity ;  and  expect,  ere  I  quit  my  present  quar- 
ters, to  overtake  in  this  way  the  whole  of  that  district.  I 
furthermore  have  an  address  every  Friday  night  to  the 
people  of  my  vicinity,  in  the  Calton  Lancasterian  School- 
room; and  a  weekly  address  will  be  necessary  for  each  of 
the  four  weeks,  in  St.  John's  Church,  to  the  people  whom  I 
have  gone  over  in  regular  visitation.  Add  to  all  this  the 
missionary  monthly  meeting  held  yesternight,  and  you  will 
find  that,  without  one  particle  of  study,  I  am  in  full  occu- 
pation.    I  study  only  on  Fridays  and  Saturdays." 


ST.  John's;  75 

All  this  could  not  possibly  last.  He  had  experiments 
to  make  and  theories  to  prove  in  St.  John's;  and  that,  no 
doubt,  reconciled  him  for  the  time  to  a  manner  of  life 
which  he  could  not  have  continued  to  pursue  without  the 
sacrifice  of  all  other  interests.  But  even  while  thus  throw- 
ing himself  into'  parochial  work  with  an  abandonment 
which  must  have  astonished  all  who  witnessed  it,  he  was 
cherishing  the  hope  that  he  might  yet  be  free  to  follow 
another  line  of  things.  "  My  desire,"  he  was  writing,  "is 
to  give  the  remainder  of  my  days  to  intellectual  rather 
than  to  bodily  labour.  An  excess  of  the  latter  I  find  to  be 
very  hurtful,  and  should  God  uphold  me  in  strength  and 
in  the  exercise  of  my  faculties,  I  contemplate  a  far  more 
deliberate  process  of  authorship  than  I  have  ever  yet  had 
leisure  for." 

Various  opportunities  oftered  for  his  removal  to  other 
and  less  laborious  spheres,  but  they  were  either  unsuitable 
in  themselves,  or  they  came  at  times  which  were  unsea- 
sonable. At  last,  however,  an  opening  occurred  which 
had  too  many  attractions  to  be  refused.  On  the  18th  of 
January  1823  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Moral  Philoso- 
phy in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  and  without  any 
hesitation  he  accepted  the  appointment. 

Of  course  his  proposed  departure  from  Glasgow  caused 
a  furor  of  disappointment,  and  even  of  irritation ;  but  his 
reasons  for  agreeing  to  the  change  were  really  unanswer- 
able. 

"My  first,"  said  he,  "is  a  reason  of  necessity,  and  is 
founded  on  the  imperative  condition  of  my  health.  I 
should  like  to  unite  the  labour  of  preparation  for  the 
pulpit  with  the  labour  of  household  ministrations  in  the 
parish ;  this  is  a  union  which  I  have  made  many  attempts 
to  realize,  and  I  now  find  myself  to  be  altogether  unequal 


76  ST.  John's. 

^  to  it :  this  mortifying  experience  has  grown  upon  me  for  a 
good  many  months,  but  never  did  it  become  so  distinct 
and  decisive  until  the  present  winter.  My  very  last  at- 
tempt at  exertion  out  of  doors  has  been  followed  up  by 
several  weeks  of  utter  incapacity  for  fixed  thought,  I 
find  it  impossible  any  longer  to  acquit  nfyself  both  of  the 
personal  and  mental  fatigue  of  my  present  office;  and 
when  under  an  o^ipressive  sense  of  this,  a  vacant  professor- 
ship came  to  my  door,  I  entertained  it  as  an  opening  in 
providence,  and  have  resolved  to  follow  it." 

In  a  word,  he  had  o*verworked  himself,  and  with  the 
longing  of  one  perishing  of  thirst  for  water,  he  thought 
almost  with  rapture  of  "  the  unbounded  leisure  and  liberty 
of  a  summer  vacation." 

On  the  9th  of  November  1823,  when  he  was  just  forty- 
three  years  of  age,  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon. 
"  Applications  for  admission  had  for  several  weeks  been 
pouring  in  with  distressing  profusion  upon  those  who  had 
seats  in  the  church.  To  many  individuals  of  rank  and 
consideration  tickets  were  issued  entitling  them  to  a  place 
on  the  pulpit  stair  or  in  the  vacant  area  around  the  pre- 
centor's desk Before  the  doors  were  opened,  Macfar- 

lane  Street,  Queen  Street,  and  Campbell  Street  were  filled 
with  excited  groups  waiting  eagerly  for  admission.  At 
last  the  main  entrance  was  thrown  open,  the  gathered 
crowd  converged  upon  it,  and  the  conflict  commenced. 
For  a  brief  season  the  efforts  of  the  door-keepers  and  their 
allies  were  successful;  the  assailants,  however,  multiplied 
so  rapidly,  and  the  mass  accumulated  behind  drove  on 
those  before  them  with  such  impetuosity,  that  the  well- 
guarded  entrance  was  forced Into  a  church  seated  for 

nbout  seventeen  hundred  nearly  double  that  number  was 
packed."      And  it  was  to  this  enormous  crowd  that  his 


ST.  John's.  77 

la.st  words  were  spoken  from  the  pulpit  he  had  for  four 
busy  years  been  filling. 

A  dinner  followed  on  the  Tuesday  succeeding  the  dis- 
course on  the  Sabbath.  Three  hundred  and  forty  gentle- 
men sat  down  to  it,  the  largest  party  of  the  sort  which 
had  ever  assembled  for  a  like  purpose  in  the  city.  Nor 
was  the  number  of  friends  who  thus  collected  to  do  him 
honour  the  most  notable  feature  in  the  gathering.  AVhat 
made  it  more  remarkable  was  the  varied  complexion  of  the 
guests.  "  "Whig  and  Tory,  clergyman  and  layman,  church- 
men and  dissenters,  all  joined  in  friendly  concert  to  bestow 
vipon  him  this  parting  memorial  of  their  regard." 

And  so  he  left  Glasgow  amid  the  acclamations  and 
regrets  of  multitudes  who  had  seen  the  noble  work  he  had 
performed,  and  who  knew  that  their  city  would  be  perma- 
nently the  better  of  his  having  lived  so  long  among  them. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ST.    ANDREWS. 


T  was  very  natural  that  Chalmers  should  regard 
his  translation  to  St.  Andrews  with  peculiar 
pleasure  and  satisfaction.  To  fill  a  chair  in 
its  ancient  university  had  been  at  one  time  the 
ambition  of  his  life  ;  and  although  for  a  season  he  had 
been  weaned,  as  he  believed,  from  all  desire  of  academic 
distinction,  the  old  love  revived  when  he  came  to  feel  that 
the  burden  of  such  a  ministry  as  he  had  undertaken  in 
Glasgow  was  too  much  for  him,  and  realized  that  he  might 
serve  the  cause  of  Christ  quite  as  effectively  through  a 
professorship  as  through  the  pulpit. 

He  was  not  indeed  to  be  engaged  directly  in  the  teaching 
of  religion  ;  but,  as  he  said,  when  explaining  to  the  workers 
in  St.  John's  his  reasons  for  accepting  the  offer  made  to 
liim,  the  subject  he  was  to  have  in  hand  had  so  close  a 
connection  with  divinity  that  it  might  Avell  be  called  its 
handmaid. 

"Moral  philosophy,"  he  remarked,  "is  not  theology, 
but  it  stands  at  the  entrance  of  it,  and  so  of  all  human 
sciences  is  the  most  capable  of  being  turned  into  an 
instrument  either  for  guiding  right  or  for  most  grievously 
perverting  the  minds  of  those  who  are  to  be  the  religious 
teachers  of  the  age." 


ST.   ANDREWS.  79 

He  did  not  feel,  therefore,  that  he  was  diverging  from 
the  i^ath  in  which  he  had  of  late  been  travelling,  or  was  for- 
gettmg  what  was  now  the  great  and  absorbing  purpose  of 
his  life,  when  from  his  work  of  evangelization  in  the  wynds 
of  Glasgow  he  betook  himself  to  a  college  class-room  and 
joined  with  others  in  preparmg  young  men  for  the  ministry. 

And  being  satisfied  on  this  point,  he  was  able  to 
"  expatiate,"  to  use  a  favourite  expression  of  his,  with 
almost  boyish  rapture,  over  the  bright  and  peaceful 
prospect  which  seemed  now  opening  up  before  him. 

"  I  never  thought,"  he  said  in  his  inaugural  address — 
"  I  never  thought  that  on  this  side  of  time  I  should  have 
been  permitted  to  wander  in  arbours  so  desirable,  and  that 
thus  embowered  among  my  most  delicious  recollections,  I 
should  have  realized  in  living  and  actual  history  the 
imagery  of  other  days;  that  the  play-fellows  of  my  youth 
should  thus  become  the  associates  of  my  manhood ;  and 
that  the  light-hearted  companions  of  a  season  that  has 
long  passed  away  should,  by  the  movements  of  a  mysterious 
but,  I  trust,  kind  Providence,  stand  side  by  side  as 
colleagues  in  the  work  of  presiding  over  the  studies  of 
another  genei'ation. " 

He  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  professorship  with  very 
little  formal  preparation.  Coming  right  out  of  the  heart 
of  his  parochial  work  in  Glasgow,  he  had  found  no  time  to 
carry  almost  any  completed  material  in  his  hand,  and  all 
the  session  through  he  was  living  literally  from  hand  to 
mouth.  But  his  subject  was,  in  many  of  its  aspects,  quite 
familiar  to  him  ;  and  the  manner  in  which  he  treated  it 
was  so  different  from  what  the  university  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  that  his  class-room  became  oftentimes  the 
scene  of  just  such  excitement  as  had  been  so  frequently 
exhibited  in  churches  or  elsewhere  by  popular  assemblies. 


80  ST.   ANDREWS. 

All  the  difference  which  appeared  was  this,  that  the  en- 
thusiasm awakened  was  expressed  more  demonstratively. 
In  places  of  w^orship  the  stir  he  caused  by  his  bursts  of 
eloquence  was  restrained.  In  St.  Andrews,  the  students 
would  not  be  suppressed,  and  loud  and  often  obstreperous 
applause  followed  the  delivery  of  many  portions  of  his 
lectures. 

The  appointment,  in  short,  was  admitted  by  all  to  be  a 
great  success;  and  even  those  w^ho  (sympathizing  strongly  in 
his  missionary  work)  had  most  doubted  about  the  propriety 
of  such  a  man  leaving  the  pulpit  for  a  chair,  began  to  see 
how,  by  directing  as  he  Avas  doing  one  of  the  tributary 
streams  which  helped  to  form  the  main  current  of  the 
ministry,  he  was  performing  services  which  were  likely  to 
tell,  not  on  one  locality  only,  but  on  all  the  Church. 

What  did  much  to  satisfy  interested  onlookers  on  that 
point  was  his  method  of  teaching.  He  had  no  sooner 
undertaken  his  new  office  than  he  became  persuaded  that 
the  subject  hitherto  had  not  been  receiAdng  justice.  Less 
and  more  had  been  made  of  it  than  seemed  to  him  to  be 
either  legitimate  or  wise.  On  the  one  hand,  it  had  been 
the  custom  to  treat  it  as  if  it  were  "mental"  and  not 
'•  moral"  philosophy  at  all ;  or,  at  least,  so  much  time  was 
given  to  the  discussion  of  the  purely  metaphysical  diffi- 
culties of  the  science  that  little  remained  o^er  for  the  ex- 
position of  what  properly  belonged  to  it.  How  this  came 
about  had  a  natural  enough  explanation.  "  The  wnritings 
of  Hume,  in  which  the  very  foundation  of  morals  was 
threatened  by  a  purely  metaphysical  scepticism,  had 
drawn  after  him,  into  a  region  which  was  not  properly 
their  own,  the  professors  of  moral  science  in  Scotland. 
Metaphysics  and  moral  science  had  become  so  allied 
and  interwoven  that  it  was  imagined  the  one  could  not  be 


ST.   ANDREWS.  81 

rightly  discussed  without  a  preceding  and  enlarged  treat- 
ment of  the  other." 

But  there  was  a  worse  evil  even  than  that.  Chalmers 
found  that  there  had  existed  before  him  a  most  unreason- 
ably fastidious  dread  of  trenching  on  the  domain  of  natural 
theology,  and  still  more  of  so  much  as  remotely  hinting 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  Christianity.  He  himself 
was  very  careful  to  tell  his  students  that  the  science  of 
which  he  was  the  teacher  was  incapable  of  explaining 
everything.  It  suggested  doubts  which  it  could  not  solve. 
And  nothing  seemed  to  him  more  rational  than  to  say  that 
there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  supernatural  revelation,  through 
which,  possibly,  some  further  information  might  be  de-  L. 
rived.  He  did  not,  of  course,  consider  it  his  business  to 
expound  that  revelation, — that  duty  had  been  committed 
to  others, — but  he  held  that  it  would  have  been  most 
unphilosophical  on  his  part  not  to  mention  a  source  of 
illumination  from  which  a  higher  light  might  conceivably 
be  received.  And  to  show  the  propriety  of  this  position, 
he  was  accustomed  to  use  the  following  illustration  : — 

"  If,"  said  he,  "  natural  philosophy  were  divided  into 
two  professorships,  one  of  which  related  to  the  W'hole  of 
terrestrial  physics,  and  to  that  portion  of  celestial  physics 
which  is  accessible  to  the  unassisted  observation  of  man, 
and  the  other  of  which  related  to  that  department  of 
celestial  physics  the  informations  of  which  are  brought  home 
by  the  telescope ;  then  if  the  professor  of  the  former  were 
to  make  no  allusion  either  to  the  power  of  that  instrument 
by  which  these  further  informations  were  brought  home, 
or  at  least  to  make  no  general  allusion  to  the  magnitude 
and  importance  of  the  informations  themselves,  although 
he  did  not  enter  into  a  detail  of  them,  he  would  be  doing 
a  most  grievous  injustice  to  the  noble  science  of  astronomy. 

(6.36)  "  6 


82  ST.  ANDREWS. 

And  in  like  manner  I  feel  that  I  should  be  doing  the 
utmost  injustice  to  what  may  be  considered  as  the 
science  of  celestial  ethics,  if  I  were  to  make  no  reference 
to  that  department  of  it  which  is  beyond  the  ken  of  the 
natural  powers,  but  ^^dthin  the  ken  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion." 

He  thus  held  that  there  had  been  at  once  an  undue 
excess  and  an  undue  limitation  in  the  teaching  of  his  sub- 
ject; and,  striking  out  for  himself,  as  usual,  an  independent 
path,  he  made  his  chair  what,  no  doubt,  it  was  intended 
originally  to  be, — a  direct  stepping-stone  to  the  study  of 
theology.  Viewing  it,  indeed,  so  distinctly  in  this  light,  he 
was  strongly  convinced  that  its  place  behoved  to  be  changed 
in  the  curriculum.  In  all  our  Scotch  universities  natural 
philosophy  comes  last  in  the  undergraduate  course.  He 
would  have  had  that  subject  brought  on  earlier,  and  moral 
philosophy  made  the  subject  last  dealt  -wdth  by  the  students 
before  entering  the  Divinity  Hall. 

In  regard  to  his  method,  he  treated  moral  philosophy 
as  strictly  "  the  philosophy  of  duty ; "  and,  in  discussing 
that,  he  viewed  his  subject  in  two  coimections.  The  first 
part  of  his  course  was  devoted  to  showing  what  are  the 
ethical  relations  of  man  and  man.  In  the  second  he  took 
a  higher  flight  and  dealt  with  the  moralities  which  connect 
heaven  and  earth.  It  was,  of  course,  under  this  last  head 
that  he  felt  himself  impelled  to  touch  upon  revelation. 
The  moralities  with  which  we  have  to  do  have  not  been 
fully  enumerated  if  no  account  is  taken  of  an  invisible 
Being  to  whom  we  owe  obedience.  Who  he  is,  is  a  question 
wliich  Chalmers  regarded  as  so  far  within  his  sphere,  and 
he  gave  some  lectures  upon  it ;  but  it  was  impossible,  in 
discussing  it,  not  to  see  that  the  light  is  insufficient  which 
Nature  supplies,  and  hence  he  ended  by  making  direct, 


ST.   ANDREWS.  83 

though  not  detailed,  allusion  to  that  spiritual  telescope  by 
whose  means  alone  any  certain  information  could  be  de- 
I'ived  of  things  unseen. 

When  his  second  session  came  round,  Chalmers  was,  of 
course,  still  better  prepared  to  meet  and  satisfy  the  expec- 
tations which  had  been  formed  regarding  him  ;  and  his 
course  this  year  has  often  been  spoken  of  since  as  a  pecu- 
liarly brilliant  one.  Students  gathered  to  St.  Andrews 
from  all  the  other  Scottish  universities,  and  even  from  Eng- 
land and  Ireland.  The  attendance  on  the  moral  philosophy 
class  became  more  than  doubled.  Never  had  so  large  or 
intelli2;ent  an  audience  been  collected  within  the  college 
walls ;  and  teacher  and  scholars  alike  felt  the  stimulus 
of  the  scene.  Many  were  the  impassioned  utterances  to 
which  the  professor  was  moved  to  give  expression,  and  all 
his  efforts  were  vain  to  keej)  his  hearers  from  showing  how 
thoroughly  they  appreciated  these.  The  practice  of  "ruff- 
ing," it  would  seem,  had  only  been  recently  introduced. 
It  had  appeared,  more  or  less,  in  all  the  universities. 
Chalmers,  as  we  can  well  believe,  was  afflicted  with  it 
more  than  most.  And  as  he  had  of  old  consulted  Dr. 
Wardlaw  about  the  best  means  of  keeping  down  a  crowd, 
so  now  he  took  counsel  with  a  professor  of  mathematics 
on  the  subject  of  how  best  to  put  an  end  to  what  he  called 
the  system  of  "  pedestrian  approbation. "  "  It  is,"  he  told 
his  students  almost  ruefully,  "a  new  and  somewhat  per- 
plexing phenomenon  in  the  seats  of  learning ;  but  whatever 
diversity  of  taste  or  of  opinion  may  obtain  as  to  the  right 
treatment  of  it,  my  friend  and  I  agreed  in  one  thing, — that 
if  any  response  is  to  come  back  upon  the  professor  for  the 
effusions  poured  forth  by  him,  it  is  far  better  that  it  should 
come  from  the  heads  than  from  the  heels  of  the  rising 
generation ! "     It  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  such  a 


84  ST.   ANDREWS. 

remonstrance  could  have  had  any  otlier  effect  than  that  of 
increasing  the  evil. 

Laboriously  and  conscientiously  as  Chalmers  performed 
all  the  duties  of  his  office,  he  did  not  find  in  it  full  scope 
for  all  his  energies ;  and  partly,  no  doubt,  on  that  account, 
and  partly  because  he  had  always  felt  a  keen  interest  in 
the  subject,  he  opened  a  supplementary  class  for  political 
economy.  In  this  class  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of 
Nations  "  was  used  as  a  text-book.  Upon  that  and  his 
lectures  careful  catechetical  instruction  was  given.  And 
not  the  least  of  the  benefits  which  he  conferred  upon  the 
young  men  who  came  under  his  influence  at  St.  Andrews 
was  the  training  which  they  received  from  him  as  members 
of  the  body  politic. 

In  settling  down,  however,  in  the  city  A^dth  which  he 
had  so  many  pleasant  associations,  there  was  one  thing  which 
he  seems  to  have  rather  forgotten.  He  was  not  the  same 
as  he  had  been  when,  as  the  minister  of  Kilmany,  he  had 
asserted  his  right  to  teach  in  defiance  of  the  university. 
But  although  he  had  changed,  St.  Andrews  had  not.  It 
was,  in  religious  matters,  as  JModerate  as  ever ;  and,  if  all 
stories  are  true,  it  was  by  no  means  a  lightsome  thing  for 
any  one  to  be  compelled  to  attend  the  College  Kirk,  and 
to  hear  Dr.  Haldane  preach  in  the  morning  and  Dr.  Buist  in 
the  afternoorL  A  legend  is  current  in  that  quarter  to  this 
effect,  that  a  person  who  wanted  sleep  tried  other  opiates 
in  vain,  and  cried  out  at  last,  in  utter  despair,  "  0  for  an 

hour  of  Dr.  ! "     In  such  circumstances  Chalmers  was 

made  to  feel  that  he  had  come  into  a  spiritual  wilderness ; 
and  realizing  the  evil  effects  of  this  upon  his  own  soul,  he 
was  mo'S'ed  to  take  a  side  in  a  controversy  which  seriously 
disturbed  his  relations  with  his  colleagues. 

The  college  law  required  that  all  students  belonging  to 


ST.  ANDREWS.  85 

the  Established  Church  should  attend  every  Sabbath  a 
particular  place  of  worship.  Liberty  to  go  where  they 
liked  was  conceded  to  Dissenters  ;  but  there  was  no  free- 
dom for  any  who  did  not  claim  it  under  that  designation. 
Such  a  rule  might  not  have  pressed  very  heavily,  if  in  the 
church  to  which  the  students  were  driven  the  preaching- 
had  been  edifying  or  attractive.  But  it  was  hard,  at  a 
time  when  Scotland  was  awakening  to  a  new  life  and  its 
ingenuous  youth  had  begun  to  feel  the  stir  of  a  better  era, 
to  compel  men,  whether  they  would  or  not,  to  "  sit  under"  a 
style  of  teaching  which  had  almost  driven  religion  from 
the  land.  Under  any  circumstances  Chalmers  would  have 
revolted  under  such  tyranny ;  but,  as  has  been  indicated, 
he  had  himself  groaned  under  the  arrangement,  and  he  was 
thus  more  than  well  disposed  to  aid  in  any  effort  made  to 
secure  relief. 

His  first  attempt  to  alter  the  state  of  things  was  made 
in  connection  with  a  vacancy  which  occurred  in  the 
incumbency  of  the  College  Church.  The  old  minister,  a 
Moderate,  retired ;  and  if  an  earnest  Evangelical  had  been 
appointed,  the  grievance  would,  for  a  time  at  any  rate, 
have  ceased  to  press.  But  the  chancellor  of  the  university, 
with  whom  the  patronage  lay,  refused  to  listen  to  the 
remonstrance  that  was  addi'essed  to  him,  and  the  mischief 
was  once  more  repeated.  One  of  the  professors,  and  he  a 
man  of  the  well-known  dry  type,  was  nominated  to  the 
vacant  ofiice,  and  the  discontent  broke  out  as  loudly  and 
importunately  as  ever. 

The  sympathy  which  he  showed  on  this  occasion  for  the 
students  exposed  Chalmers  to  charges  which  were  most 
unjust,  but  in  connection  with  which  he  gave  expression 
to  sentiments  in  which  may  be  seen  the  key-note  of  much 
of  his  after-life.     Some  members  of  his  family  had  felt  so 


86  ST.   ANDREWS. 

strongly  the  burden  of  the  Mocleratism  of  St.  Andrews, 
that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  seeking  spiritual  refreshment 
now  and  then  in  the  warmer  atmosphere  of  a  Dissenting 
chapel.  With  this  practice  Chalmers  had  not  interfered, 
and  he  was  accused  in  consequence  of  being  disloyal  to  the 
Establishment. 

His  answer  was  in  substance  this,  that  the  value  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  lay,  not  in  its  being  an  Establishment, 
but  in  its  being  an  efl&cient  Church ;  that  life  is  more  than 
State  connection;  and  that  by  insisting  in  all  circumstances 
on  the  supreme  importance  of  the  gospel,  you  tend  to 
secure  the  usefulness  of  any  Church  to  which  you  may 
belong. 

*'  I  have,"  said  he,  "  no  veneration  for  the  Church  of 
Scotland  merely  quasi  an  Establishment,  but  I  have  the 
utmost  veneration  for  it  quasi  an  instrument  of  Christian 

good I  think  it  a  high  object  to  uphold  the  Church  of 

Scotland,  but  only  because  of  its  subserviency  to  the  still 

higher  object  of  upholding  the  Christianity  of  our  land 

Consistently  Avith  this  principle,  if  I  knew  of  any  Dissent- 
ing chapel  where,  in  point  of  fact,  the  members  of  my 
family  received  a  deeper,  a  more  powerful,  and  a  more 
practical  impression  upon  their  consciences  than  in  the 
parish  church,  I  should  not  feel  myself  guilty  of  schism 
though  I  recommended  and  encouraged  the  members  of  my 
family  to  go  to  that  place  where  they  found  the  ministra- 
tion that  was  most  calculated  to  do  them  good.  And  so 
far  from  this  operatiiag  with  prejudicial  effect  upon  the 
Establishment,  it  just  applies  to  that  Establishment  the 
force  of  a  self-correcting  principle,  by  acting  with  a  whole- 
some reflex  influence  on  the  exercise  of  patronage." 

^Miat  utter  radicalism  all  this  must  have  sounded  when 
it  was  first  spoken  !    And  yet  it  is  very  easy  to  see  how  he 


ST.   ANDREWS.  87 

came  to  be  drifted  into  the  position  which  he  now  defined. 
The  maintenance  of  the  life  of  God  in  his  soul  had  come 
to  be  regarded  by  him  as  an  object  of  prime  im])ortance. 
His  diary  shows  that  he  felt  keenly  the  depressing  influ- 
ences of  St.  Andrews  Moderatism.  Nothing,  for  example, 
could  well  be  more  significant  than  this  entry  :  "A  better 
Sabbath  than  I  have  had  for  a  long  time,  eren  though  I  did 
attend  the  College  Church  all  day !  "  What  he  got  in  his 
ordinary  place  of  worship  was  not  quickening,  but  the 
reverse.  He  was  forced  to  think  of  others  as  well  as  of 
himself.  Yeiy  many  had  not  his  resources  to  fall  back 
upon.  The  mischief  being  done  by  the  system  within  the 
Church  must  have  seemed  to  him  unspeakable.  And  so  he 
was  naturally  led  to  ask  whether  a  Moderate  Establish- 
ment, merely  because  it  was  an  Establishment,  was  worthy 
of  being  supported  at  all  hazards.  It  is  more  thaii  likely 
tliat  he  Avas  now  being  taught,  as  he  had  never  been  before, 
to  see  that  nothing  can  compensate  for  the  absence  of  the 
gosjoel,  and  that  no  sacrifice  is  too  great  to  secure  to  a 
country  the  universal  diffusion  in  it  of  evangelical  truth. 

But  there  was  also  another  thing  which  helped  to  render 
the  stay  of  Chalmers  in  St.  Andrews  less  happy  than  it 
might  have  been.  This  was  a  dispute  with  his  fellow- 
professors  about  the  appropriation  of  certain  college  funds. 
The  income  of  the  university  was  spent  under  the  super- 
intendence of  the  senate,  and  the  members  of  that  body 
had  somehow  fallen  into  the  habit  of  dividing  among 
themselves  any  surplus  that  remained  after  the  current 
expenses  of  the  year  had  been  met.  The  professor  of 
moral  philosophy  did  not  see  that  he  and  liis  colleagues 
had  any  right  to  this  money,  and  he  not  only  said  so,  but 
positively  refused  to  accept  his  share.  His  fastidiousness 
on  this  point  Avas  worse  than  annoying.      It  set  agoing  the 


88  ST.    ANDREWS. 

rumour  that  his  colleagues  were  guilty  of  virtual  dishonesty, 
and  bitter  words  were  sometimes  bandied  about  among 
them.  The  unpleasantness  thus  caused  had  nearly  issued 
in  the  loss  of  Chalmei's  to  Scotland.  There  came  to  him, 
while  things  were  yet  in  an  unsettled  state,  an  invitation 
to  occupy  the  chair  of  moral  science  in  the  London  Univer- 
sity, and  he  did  not  at  once  put  away  the  offer  from  him 
as  altogether  out  of  the  question.  Happily  a  royal  com- 
mission had  been  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of 
the  Scottish  colleges,  and  he  felt  disposed  to  wait  for  the 
result.  Other  things  also  made  a  movement  across  the 
Border  seem  not  entirely  expedient  at  that  time.  And  so 
he  was  preserved  to  the  country  to  which  he  properly 
belonged.  But  the  two  things  which  have  been  referred 
to  made  it  clear  enough  that  St.  Andrews  was  not  to  be 
his  final  resting-place,  and  no  one  who  knew  all  the  facts 
was  much  surprised  wdien,  after  a  five  years'  residence  in 
it,  he  show^ed  no  indisposition  to  move  to  Edinburgh. 

We  turn,  however,  very  gladly  from  all  that  to  look  at 
his  St.  Andrews  life  from  two  other  sides. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  began  to  take  a  systematic 
lead  in  the  afiairs  of  the  Church.  His  native  burgh  of 
Anstruther  returned  him  as  its  representati^-e  to  the 
General  Assembly,  and  year  after  year  in  succession  he  sat 
as  a  member  of  that  court.  The  conflict  was  now  not  very 
far  off  in  wliich  he  was  to  play  so  conspicuous  a  part,  and 
already  the  skirmishing  which  precedes  great  battles  had 
commenced.  He  had  no  difliculty  in  singling  out  the  side 
on  which  he  was  to  fight.  He  belonged  by  constitution 
and  conviction  to  the  reforming  party,  and  he  ranged  him- 
self at  once  under  the  flag  of  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  and  Sir 
Harry  Moncreiff",  who  were  setting  their  faces  against 
everything,    however    respectable    and    time-honoured    it 


ST.  ANDREWS.  89 

might  be,  which  seemed  to  them  to  hinder  the  efficiency  of 
the  Church  as  an  organization  for  practical  work. 

In  the  Assembly  of  1824,  for  example,  he  took  a  leading 
part  in  two  debates.  The  question  discussed  in  the  first 
was  whether  Dr.  Macfarlan,  who  was  already  Principal 
of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  could  with  propriety  be 
appointed  also  to  the  incumbency  of  the  High  Church  in 
that  city.  The  Moderates  said  Yes,  the  Evangelicals  No  ; 
but  the  former  were  still  masters  of  the  ship,  and  they 
carried  their  point  by  a  decisive  majority.  In  the  other 
case  Chalmers  conquered,  but  the  entire  number  who  voted 
was  very  much  smaller,  so  that  no  certain  inference  could 
be  drawn  as  to  the  mind  of  the  whole  Assembly.  The 
point  settled  was,  that  there  was  no  reason  why  another 
Gaelic  chapel  should  not  be  built  in  Glasgow  Ijecause  the 
other  Gaelic  chapel  had  still  a  good  many  of  its  seats 
unlet. 

The  following  year  Chalmers  brought  up  the  subject  of 
pluralities  again  in  the  shape  of  a  general  motion  of  dis- 
approval. He  was  beaten,  of  course,  but  by  a  majority 
so  small  that  he  was  encouraged,  not  disheartened.  The 
debate  which  took  place,  however,  m  this  connection  is 
memorable  not  so  much  on  its  own  account,  as  on  account 
of  an  incident  of  singular  interest  which  occurred  in  the 
course  of  it.  A  speaker  on  the  opposition  side  supported 
his  arguments  by  quotations  from  a  pamphlet  which,  he 
said,  had  appeared  a  few  years  before.  The  quotations 
went  to  prove,  on  the  authority  of  a  man  who  could  speak 
from  experience,  that  a  minister's  work  is  so  little 
burdensome  that  he  can  easily  perform  it  all,  and  have, 
when  it  is  done,  five  free  days  in  the  week  to  spend  in  any 
way  he  likes.  The  pamphlet  was  the  one  which  the 
minister    of    Kilmany    had    written    in    the    days    of    his 


90  ST.   ANDREWS. 

spiritual  ignorance  in  reply  to  the  letter,  already  noticed, 
of  Professor  Playfair ;  and,  as  usually  happens  when  a 
personal  hit  of  this  kind  is  made,  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
satirical  laughter  awakened  in  the  Assembly. 

Chalmers,  as  the  pro^joser  of  the  motion,  had  the  right 
of  reply ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  debate  he  referred,  amid 
breathless  silence,  to  the  attack  which  had  been  made 
upon  his  consistency. 

"  Sir,"  he  said,  "  that  pamphlet  I  now  declare  to  have 

vjbeen  a  production  of  my   own,  published   twenty  years 

ago At  the  time  when  I  -wTote  it  I  did  not  conceive 

that  my  pamphlet  would  do  much  evil ;  but,  sir,  consider- 
ing the  conclusions  that  have  been  deduced  fi'om  it  by  the 
reverend  gentleman,  I  do  feel  obliged  to  him  for  reviving 
it,  and  for  bringing  me  forward  to  make  my  public  renun- 
ciation of  what  is  there  written.  I  now  confess  myself 
to  have  been  guilty  of  a  heinous  crime,  and  I  now  stand 
a   repentant   culprit   before    the   bar    of    this   venerable 

Assembly I  was   at    that  time,  sir,  more  devoted  to 

mathematics  than  to  the  literature  of  my  profession ;  and 
feeling  grieved  and  indignant  at  what  I  conceived  an 
undue  reflection  on  the  abilities  and  education  of  the 
clergy,  I  came  forward  with  that  j^amphlet  to  rescue  them 
from  what  I  deemed  an  unmerited  reproach,  by  maintain- 
ing that  a  devoted  and  exclusive  attention  to  the  study  of 
mathematics  was  not  dissonant  to  the  proper  habits  of  a 
clergyman.  Alas,  sir  !  so  I  thought  in  my  ignorance  and 
pride.  1  have  now  no  reserve  in  saying  that  the  senti- 
ment was  wrong,  and  that,  in  the  utterance  of  it,  I  penned 
what  was  most  outrageously  wrong.  Strangely  blinded 
that  I  was !  What,  sir,  is  the  object  of  mathematical 
science?     Magnitude  and  the  proportions  of  magnitude. 

-^  But  then,  sir,  I  had  forgotten  two  magnitudes :  I  thought 


ST.   ANDREWS.  91 

not  of  the  littleness  of  time ;  I  recklessly  thought  not  of 
the  greatness  of  eternity." 

The  sensation  produced  by  this  "recantation"  maybe 
imagined.  The  "resurrection"  of  the  pamphlet  did  not  in 
the  end  serve  much  the  cause  of  the  upholders  of  plurali- 
ties. 

Another  notable  debate  took  place  in  this  Assembly 
(that  of  1825)  upon  the  question  of  whether  a  minister  who 
did  not  know  Gaelic  could  be  ju.stifiably  intruded  into  a 
parish  where  Gaelic  was  the  language  of  a  considerable 
number  of  the  people.  "We  refer  to  it  in  passing  for  two 
reasons :  first,  because  it  shows  Chalmers  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  Evangelical  party,  seconding  a  motion  made  by  Di*. 
Andrew  Thomson;  and,  second,  because  here  again  appeared 
the  characteristic  feature  of  his  churchmanship.  He  was, 
as  used  to  be  said  more  frequently  afterwards,  not  so  much 
Sl  jurist — looking  at  things  in  the  light  of  abstract  right 
or  justice — as  a  practical  reformer,  asking  always  how. 
arrangements  would  serve  their  ends.  It  does  not  noAv 
seem  a  great  achievement  that  Andrew  Thomson  carried 
his  motion  in  the  Little  Dunkeld  Case  by  a  majority  of 
one  hundred  and  eight  to  eighty-nine ;  but  the  victory 
was  hailed  with  immense  satisfaction  at  the  time  as  another 
sign  of  the  turning  of  the  tide.  The  Church  was  beginning 
to  waken  up  to  the  necessity  of  seeing  her  work  honestly 
done,  even  at  the  cost  of  personal  feelings  and  venerable 
traditions. 

Another  side  of  Chalmers's  St.  Andrews  life  presents 
itself  when  we  look  at  his  private  and  individual  efforts 
in  the  interest  of  spiritual  religion.  He  no  sooner  settled 
down  in  the  old  city  than  he  began  a  Sabbath  school,  of 
which  he  took  the  personal  superintendence.  He  gave 
this  work  up  in  1827  into  the  hands  of  .John  Urquhart, 


92  ST.  ANDREWS. 

but  only  that  he  might  be  more  free  to  conduct  a  Sabbath 
class  for  students  in  his  own  dining-room.  This  class  had 
been  commenced  in  1824,  and  had  for  two  or  three  sessions 
been  restricted  so  as  to  bear  an  essentially  family  character. 
But  the  pressure  for  admission  into  it  became  too  impor- 
tunate to  be  resisted,  and  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  saw  him 
discoursing  on  the  leading  topics  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
personal  religion  to  as  many  young  men  as  could  be 
crowded  into  the  largest  apartment  in  his  house.  This 
meeting  became  literally  a  well  of  life.  It  told  directly 
upon  those  who  attended  it,  and  there  issued  from  it 
streams  which  watered  the  dry  places  around ;  for  one 
student  after  another  was  stirred  up  to  become  himself  a 
teacher,  and  Sabbath  schools  and  evangelistic  services 
sprang  up  in  consequence  in  all  parts  of  the  town  and 
district. 

Nor  was  this  all.  Dr.  Chalmers  consented  to  become  the 
president  of  a  missionary  society  in  St.  Andrews.  It  had 
existed  before  his  coming,  but  in  a  very  listless  way.  His 
accession,  however,  produced  an  instantaneous  change  in  its 
condition.  The  monthly  meetings  grew  to  be  so  crowded 
that  they  required  to  be  transferred  to  a  larger  place. 
Deeply  interested  himself  in  the  great  business  of  evangel- 
izing the  world,  he  took  the  trouble  to  gather  together  all 
the  intelligence  that  he  could  acquire  regarding  the  work. 
This  intelligence  he  put  into  shape  for  the  benefit  of  others. 
At  the  monthly  "concert  for  prayer"  he  gave  this  forth; 
and  as  a  result,  it  might  almost  be  said  that  the  whole  city 
was  moved.  Certainly  the  university  was  moved,  "  Our 
college,"  wrote  one  of  the  students  of  the  time,  "  seems  at 
present  to  present  an  aspect  something  similar  to  that  of 
the  University  of  Oxford  in  the  days  of  Hervey  and 
Wesley."     Five  or  six  of  the  students  formally  devoted 


ST.    ANDREWS.  93 

themselves  to  the  missionary  service.  John  Urquhart, 
one  of  the  noblest  of  the  set,  was  prevented  by  an  early 
death  from  carrying  out  his  purpose.  But  all  the  world 
has  heard  of  DufF;  and  if  the  names  of  Adam,  and  Nesbit, 
and  Mackay  are  less  illustrious,  these  all  did  such  work  for 
God  in  India  as  makes  one  think  with  grateful  admiration 
of  the  life  of  Chalmers  in  St.  Andrews. 

There  were  not  a  few  who  complained,  in  a  rueful  way, 
of  Chalmers's  withdrawal  from  the  pulpit.  It  w^as  indeed  a 
great  blow  which  Glasgow  sustained  when  he  was  taken 
away  from  the  peculiar  work  which  he  had  been  perform- 
ing there.  But  in  his  case  no  fair  comparison  could  be 
made  between  chair  and  pulpit.  Wherever  he  went  he 
carried  the  fire  with  him ;  and  although  in  Fife  his 
audiences  were  smaller,  this  was  also  to  be  said,  that  they 
were  more  select.  In  St.  Andrews  he  dealt  with  the  men 
who  were  to  be  the  Tuture  aiiinisters  of  Scotland ;  and 
in  acting  as  he  did  he  told,  through  his  students,  upon  a 
whole  generation  of  his  countrymen. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FIRST  YEARS  IX  EDINBURGH. 

Y  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Ritchie,  the  chair  of 
theology  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh  be- 
came vacant  in  1827,  and  Dr.  Chahners  was 
at  once  proposed  as  his  successor.  His 
appointment  coukl  not  have  been  acceptable  to  all ;  for 
Moderatism  still  commanded  a  majority  in  the  Assembly, 
and  it  must  have  been  somewhat  falling  to  its  leaders  to 
see  so  decided  an  Evangelical  intrusted  with  the  training 
of  the  youth  who  were  to  form  the  future  ministry  of  the 
Church.  The  claims  of  Chalmers,  however,  were  so  con- 
spicuous that  he  could  not,  with  any  fair  show  of  reason, 
be  passed  by ;  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Town  Council 
of  Edinburgh  that  they  agreed  with  entire  unanimity  to 
offer  him  the  position.  The  election  took  place  in  October 
1827,  but  the  date  was  too  close  upon  the  beginning  of  the 
session  to  allow  of  his  undertaking  the  work  immediately, 
and  he  did  not  deliver  his  inaugural  lecture  till  the  6th  of 
November  1828 — the  intervening  eleven  months  having 
been  spent  by  him  in  assiduous  preparation  for  his  new 
duties. 

Tlie  day  on  which  he  commenced  teaching  in  Edinburgh 
was  outwardly  by  no  means  a  genial  one — showers  of  sleet 
and  snow  sweeping  through  the  college  court — but  such  a 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH.  95 

crowd  gathered  to  hear  that  a  strong  body  of  police  was 
needed  to  keep  things  in  order.  One  who  has  now  passed 
away,  himself  a  most  accomplislied  man,  Mr.  Cunningham 
of  Prestonpans,  describes  in  glowing  terms  the  impression 
which  was  produced  by  the  lecture  on  those  who  listened 
to  it.  "  All  felt,"  he  says,  "  more  deeply  than  they  could 
worthily  declare,  that  it  was  a  most  glorious  prelude,  and 
that  at  once  and  for  ever  his  right  to  reign  as  a  king  in 
the  broad  realms  of  theological  science,  and  to  rule  over 
their  own  individual  minds  as  a  teacher,  was  as  unequivocal 
as  his  mastery  over  a  popular  assembly." 

His  class-room  continued  to  be  crowded  all  through  the 
session — many  attending  it  who  were  not  regular  students, 
nor  even  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church — and  when 
notes  were  compared  at  the  close,  it  was  generally  admitted 
that  a  distinctly  new  era  had  begun  in  connection  with  the 
academic  education  of  the  ministry.  Formerly  the  prelec- 
tions had  been  often  clear,  sometimes  learned,  and  students 
had  come  forth  from  the  Hall  with  a  more  or  less  com- 
petent knowledge  of  theological  systems.  But  there  had 
never  been  any  approach  to  "  an  explosion,"  and  youthful 
enthusiasms  had  been  rather  dulled  than  fanned  into  a 
flame.  Now  there  was  a  professor  in  possession  to  whom 
Christianity  was  not  a  mere  framework  of  diy  bones,  but  a 
living  force.  His  own  soul  was  on  fire  ;  and  whatever  he 
felt  himself  he  made  his  audiences  feel.  And  as  a  conse- 
quence, there  immediately  began  a  process  which  in  time 
told  visibly  upon  the  face  of  Scotland — the  inspiring  of  a 
race  of  men  who  carried  the  life  with  them  into  the  pulpits 
which  they  filled,  and  became  the  means  of  bringing  about 
a  great  revival  of  religion. 

A  year  or  two  later,  Chalmers  was  surprised  by  receiv- 
ing a  letter  from  Sir  Michael  Shaw  Stewart,  oflfering  to 


96  FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH. 

present  liim  to  the  West  Church,  Greenock.  There 
was  thus  placed  within  his  reach  the  most  lucrative 
li\T.ng  in  the  Church  of  Scotland — the  emoluments  be- 
longing to  it  amounting  to  about  double  those  which 
were  attached  to  the  chair  he  was  then  filling.  He 
was  greatly  gratified  by  the  compliment  which  was  thus 
paid  to  him ;  but  he  had  no  hesitation  in  at  once  send- 
ing back  a  refusal,  giving  the  following  as  his  reason  for 
doing  so  : — 

"You  may  well  believe  that  nothing  could  induce  me  to 
decline  the  honour  and  the  advantage  of  such  a  proposal 
but  a  firm  conviction  of  the  sujyerior  importance  of  a  theo- 
logical chair  to  any  church  lohatever,  along  with  the  rooted 
preference  which  I  have  ever  felt  for  the  professorial  over 
the  ministerial  life." 

Tills  was  ^vl'itten  in  1831,  after  an  experience  of  three 
sessions  in  Edinburgh,  and  by  that  time  he  must  have  been 
fully  alive  to  the  greatness  of  the  influence  which  his 
position  enabled  him  to  exercise.  He  was  at  the  fountain- 
head.  It  was  largely  in  his  power  to  make  or  mar  the 
ministry  of  the  immediate  future.  And  when  he  saw,  as 
he  could  not  but  do,  the  signs  of  a  quickening  life  among 
his  students,  it  would  have  been  nothing  less  than  a  flying 
in  the  face  of  Providence  if  on  any  account  he  had  aban- 
doned the  post  which  he  had  undertaken  to  fill. 

Chalmers  was  great  in  very  many  respects,  but  in  nothing 
was  his  greatness  made  more  apparent  than  in  his  power 
over  the  minds  of  men.  He  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree 
those  kingly  qualities  which  cause  men  to  be  reverenced  and 
followed.  He  was  a  bom  leader,  and  to  this  hour  there 
are  old  disciples  of  his  whose  eyes  kindle  when  they  speak 
of  him.  Among  the  various  causes  which  led  directly  to 
the  triumph  of  the  Evangelical  interest  in  Scotland,  one  of 


FIRST  YEARS  IX  EDINBURGH.  97 

the  most  potential  was  the  appointment  of  one  so  earnest 
and  eloquent  to  a  theological  professorship. 

Tliese  first  years  in  Edinburgh  were  stirring  times  in 
more  ways  than  one.  The  Church  "  Conflict,"  technically  so 
called,  had  not  yet  begun,  but,  as  has  been  already  said,  the 
forces  which  were  to  take  part  in  it  were  being  mustered 
for  the  battle,  and  preliminary  skirmishes  were  constantly 
going  on.  A  great  restlessness  also  appeared  in  political 
connections.  When  the  battle  of  Waterloo  had  been  fought, 
and  Europe  had  settled  down  after  the  French  revolutionary 
spirit  had  been,  as  was  imagined,  finally  laid,  there  came  a 
period  of  calm  and  apparent  content.  But  this  did  not  last. 
There  were  too  many  anomalies  in  the  British  constitution 
to  make  it  possible  for  a  nation  which  was  growing  in 
intelligence  to  live  on  without  making  efforts  at  reform. 
The  dangerous  temper  which  appeared  toward  the  close  of 
the  previous  century  began  again  to  manifest  itself.  There 
arose  from  various  quarters  a  cry  against  the  unreasonable 
possession  of  exclusive  privileges.  And  there,  is  no  telling 
what  might  have  happened,  if  Parliament  had  not  given 
way  before  the  agitation,  and  made  timely  concessions  to 
the  demands  of  the  people. 

One  of  the  measures  passed  about  this  time  was  the 
repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  which,  among 
other  things,  required  the  taking  of  the  sacrament  in 
the  Established  Church  as  a  condition  of  civil  office. 
Chalmers  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  struggle  which  was 
made  for  the  abolition  of  these  laws  ;  and  when  at  last  the 
bill  passed  and  received  the  royal  assent,  he  introduced 
into  the  General  Assembly  a  motion  proposing  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  should  express  its  satisfaction  with  the 
result.  So  reasonable  a  proposal,  however,  was  keenly 
resisted    by    the    Moderates,    who    mustered    their   whole 

(636)  7 


98  FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH. 

strength  to  defeat  the  motion,  and  it  was  defeated  by  a 
majority  of  one  hundred  and  twenty -three  to  seventy-seven. 
The  reason  why  so  many  men  voted  to  sustain  what  is  now 
universally  recognized  as  a  most  objectionable  regulation 
was  this,  that  they  looked  on  the  movement  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Acts  as  one  inspired  by  the  hostility  of  Dissent  to 
the  Establishment.  And  what  strikes  one  in  reading  Dr. 
Chalmers's  speech  on  the  other  side,  is  the  largeness  of  view 
which  enabled  him  to  rise  above  mere  local  and  personal 
considerations,  and  look  at  great  questions  in  their  own 
proper  light. 

"  Our  Scottish  Establishment,"  he  said,  "  stands  in  need 
of  none  of  those  securities  wherewith  her  fearful  sister  in 
the  south  thought  it  necessary  at  one  time  to  prop  up 
what  she  must  then  have  felt  to  be  her  frail  and  precarious 
existence.  Instead  of  such  securities  for  us,  we  ourselves 
were  the  objects  of  jealousy  to  the  hierarchy  of  England, 
and  thrust,  along  with  its  general  body  of  sectarians,  to 
an  outfield  place  beyond  the  limits  of  her  guarded  enclosure. 
But  what  has  been  the  result  1  A  striking  lesson,  if  blind 
intolerance  would  but  learn  it.  In  virtue  of  an  inherent 
strength,  we,  in  the  midst  of  disabilities,  have  stood  and 
prospered ;  and  the  motto  of  our  northern  Church — JVec 
tamen  consumehatur  —  blazes  in  characters  as  fresh  and 
undefaced  as  ever  upon  her  forehead." 

This  was  spoken  in  1828,  some  months  after  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  divinity  professorship.  He  was  thus  again 
striking  his  key-note — proclaiming  the  principle  that  no 
trust  is  to  be  put  in  artificial  props  which  do  not  rest  on  a 
foundation  of  indisputable  justice,  and  that  there  was  no 
guarantee  for  the  permanence  and  prosperity  of  his  own 
Church  but  such  as  was  to  be  found  in  her  honestly  and 
efficiently  discharging  her  proper  functions. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH.  99 

Next  year,  in  1829,  another  question  came  to  the  front, 
that  of  Catholic  Emancipation, —  the  removal,  that  is, 
from  members  of  the  Romish  Church  of  those  civil  dis- 
abilities which  prevented  them,  for  example,  from  sitting 
in  the  British  Parliament.  And  here  again  Chalmers 
appeared  on  the  liberal  side.  He  was  now  living  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  as  a  citizen  he  took  part  in  a  great  public 
meeting  which  was  held  to  promote  the  agitation.  Con- 
cerning the  speech  delivered  by  him  on  that  occasion.  Lord 
Jeffrey  gave  it  as  his  deliberate  opinion  **  that  never  had 
eloquence  produced  a  greater  effect  upon  a  popular  as- 
sembly, and  that  he  could  not  believe  more  had  ever  been 
done  by  the  oratory  of  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Burke,  or 
Sheridan." 

The  passage  in  the  speech  which  awakened  the  greatest 
enthusiasm  was  the  following  : — 

"  It  is  not  by  our  fears  and  our  false  alarms  that 
we  do  honour  to  Protestantism,  A  far  more  befitting 
honour  to  the  great  cause  is  the  homage  of  our  confidence ; 
for  what  Sheridan  said  of  the  liberty  of  the  press  admits  of 
most  emphatic  application  to  the  religion  of  truth  and 
liberty Give  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  their  emancipa- 
tion ;  give  them  a  seat  in  the  Parliament  of  their  country ; 
give  them  a  free  and  equal  participation  in  the  politics  of 
the  realm ;  give  them  a  place  at  the  right  ear  of  majesty, 
and  a  voice  in  his  counsels  ;  and  give  me  the  circulation  of 
the  Bible,  and  with  this  mighty  engine  I  will  overthrow 
the  tyranny  of  Antichrist,  and  establish  the  fair  and 
original  form  of  Christianity  on  its  ruins." 

"  The  delivery  of  this  splendid  passage,"  say  the  local 
papers  of  the  day,  "  which  was  given  with  prodigious  force, 
elicited  a  burst  of  applause  so  deafening  and  enthusiastio, 
that  tlie  effect  was  altogether  sublime.     The  shouts  and 


100  FIBST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH. 

hurrahs  were  thrice  renewed,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  the 
speaker  could  proceed." 

Still,  it  will  be  observed,  the  same  thought  rules  in  his 
mind.  He  has  unbounded  faith  in  the  power  of  the  truth, 
and  he  has  no  belief  that  its  victories  will  be  made  surer 
by  its  being  clad  in  doubtful  armour. 

"With  all  that,  however,  he  was  not  in  favour  of  the 
Reform  Bill.  It  passed  in  1831,  amid  immense  rejoicing, 
and  in  Edinburgh,  as  elsewhere,  there  was  an  illumination 
to  celebrate  the  event.  Chalmers  did  not  illuminate,  and 
he  had  the  windows  of  his  house  broken  in  consequence  by 
the  mob. 

What  led  him  to  stand  aloof  from  this  popular  move- 
ment was  evidently  the  fact  that  he  had  just  been  immersed 
ill  the  study  of  political  economy,  and  had  arrived  at 
certain  conclusions  which  were  far  from  being  in  harmony 
with  the  common  beliefs.  He  had  persuaded  himself,  for 
example,  that  the  real  amelioration  of  any  nation's  condi- 
tion depends  not  on  the  possession  of  political  privileges, 
but  on  the  intelligence  and  moral  excellence  of  its  people. 
He  did  not  see  the  force  of  the  proposition  which  was  then 
so  constantly  paraded,  that  every  citizen  has  an  original 
right  to  a  vote.  He  was  satisfied  that  most  exaggerated 
expectations  were  being  entertained  as  to  the  eflfects  which 
were  likely  to  follow  from  so  wide  an  extension  of  the 
suffrage  as  was  proposed.  He  knew  that  many  who  were 
to  be  enfranchised  would  not  make  a  wise  use  of  their  new 
powers.  And,  in  short,  being  profoundly  convinced  that 
the  reforms  needed  were  being  begun  at  the  wrong  end,  he 
refused  to  give  any  countenance  to  what  seemed  to  him  to 
be  very  much  a  great  popular  delusion.  That  he  some- 
what modified  his  views  afterwards  cannot  be  doubted. 
But  everybody's  views  came  to  be  modified  in  a  certain 


FIRST  YEARS  IX  EDINBURGH.  101 

degree  by  the  events.  The  Reform  Bill  did  not  bring  to 
the  people  all  that  they  looked  for.  They  thought  it  was 
bread,  and  they  were  certainly  mistaken.  But  neither  was 
it  a  stone.  Abuses  were  removed  which  formerly  stood  in 
the  way  of  all  improvement,  and  the  healthful  breeze  of 
]3ublic  opinion  was  allowed  to  blow  more  freely  upon  the 
machinery  of  government. 

His  "Treatise  on  Political  Economy,"  which  came  out 
about  this  time,  and  on  which  he  had  been  engaged  for 
years,  was  published  at  an  unfortunate  period.  Tlie 
thoughts  of  the  nation  were  taken  up  with  expedients 
which  lay  very  much  more  ready  to  its  hand  than  the  far- 
reaching  principles  whose  adoption  he  advocated.  The 
book  was  therefore  either  disregarded  or  assailed.  But 
not  the  less  may  it  be  expected  to  survive  when  other  and 
more  ephemeral  productions  have  perished.  So  high  an 
authority  as  John  Stuart  Mill  speaks  of  the  author  in 
connection  with  this  work  as  "a  writer  many  of  whose 
opinions  I  think  erroneous,  but  who  has  always  the  merit 
of  studying  phenomena  at  first  hand,  and  expressing  them 
in  a  language  of  his  own  which  often  uncovers  aspects  of 
the  truth  that  the  received  phraseologies  only  tend  to 
hide." 

But  there  is  another  and  peculiarly  interesting  movement 
which  belongs  to  these  years.  It  is  that  with  which  are 
associated  the  names  of  Campbell  of  Row,  Edward  Irving, 
and  Principal  Scott,  afterwards  of  Manchester. 

We  may  call  it  a  pseudo-Evangelical  movement,  because 
it  began  with  high  pretensions  to  spirituality,  it  stirred  the 
hearts  for  a  time  of  all  the  best  people  in  the  country,  and 
if  it  had  continued  to  be  as  successful  as  it  was  at  first, 
the  mischief  done  would  have  been  incalculable. 


102  FIRST  YEARS  IN   EDINBURGH. 

Mrs.  Oliphant,  the  novelist,  undertook  to  write  the  life 
of  Edward  Irving,  and  in  prosecuting  this  task  she  viewed 
things  in  a  characteristically  imaginative  light.  Her 
notion  of  the  period  is  that  a  virtually  new  revelation 
was  made  in  it  to  the  world.  Mr.  Campbell  preached  that 
all  men  are  already  forgiven,  and  that  the  faith  of  the 
gospel  means  accepting  that  as  a  fact.  Mr.  Irving  taught 
that  Christ  assumed  the  fallen  nature  of  Adam,  and 
was,  though  not  a  sinner,  peccable.  While  both  agreed 
that  it  was  a  mistake  to  assume  that  the  age  of  miracu- 
lous manifestations  is  past,  and  held  that  such  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  had  been  bestowed  upon  some  of  their  followers  as 
that  they  were  in  very  deed  enabled  to  speak  with  tongues. 
To  Mrs.  Oliphant  it  seemed  as  if  there  were  a  great  deal 
more  in  all  this  than  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  dis- 
posed to  allow,  and  she  was  displeased  with  Chalmers 
for  not  interposing  in  the  interest  of  the  new  light. 
She  would  have  had  a  council  of  the  whole  Christian 
Church  convened  to  consider  whether  Irving  was  a  prophet 
or  no ! 

The  order  that  was  followed  was  this.  First,  a  thorough 
discussion  of  the  principles  involved  took  place  in  the  Chris- 
tian Instructor  and  elsewhere  ;  and,  secondly,  a  succession 
of  trials  ensued  before  the  Church  Courts,  in  the  course 
of  which  it  was  clearly  brought  out  that,  whatever  could 
be  said  for  the  movement,  it  was  not  in  harmony  with  the 
articles  of  belief  which  bound  the  Establishment  together. 

The  issue  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  the  course  pursued. 
M'Leod  Campbell  became  a  disciple  of  Mr.  Maurice,  with 
whose  Broad- Churchism  all  are  acquainted;  and  Irvingism 
has  developed  into  one  of  the  strangest  religious  com- 
pounds of  any  age,  the  Catholic  Apostolic  Church,  in 
which  there  is  a  by  no  means  successful  attempt  to  com- 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH.  103 

bine  the  symbolism  of  the  Old  Testament  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  New. 

Looking  back  upon  this  singular  episode  in  our  Scottish 
Church  history,  one  is  inclined  to  think  of  it  as  indeed  more 
significant  than  many  have  supposed.  Mrs.  Oliphant  says 
that  the  movement  was  divine,  and  that  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land never  knew  what  peace  was  after  it  had  resolved  to  re- 
sist it.  To  us  its  providential  aspect  seems  very  different. 
The  Church  was  awakening  out  of  its  sleep ;  it  was  be- 
ginning in  earnest  to  reform;  and  the  prospects  looked 
every  day  brighter  in  favour  of  the  triumph  of  Evan- 
gelicalism. But  while  the  good  seed  was  thus  being  sown, 
an  enemy  did  his  best  to  sow  tares.  The  currents  were 
becoming  too  strong  to  be  successfully  opposed  in  front, 
and  it  was  a  cunning  stroke  of  policy  to  encourage  the 
opening  of  a  side  channel  to  draw  off  some  of  the  pressure. 

Chalmers  did  not  take  at  all  a  prominent  part  in  the 
doctrinal  controversy  to  which  we  have  been  referring. 
In  regard  to  Campbell  he  strongly  sympathized  with  him 
in  what  seemed  to  be  one  of  his  objects — the  setting  forth 
of  the  freeness  of  the  gospel  offer ;  and  as  for  his  doctrine 
of  universal  pardon,  he  evidently  thought  at  first  that  it 
was  a  mere  eccentricity  which  might-  be  shaken  off.  But 
although  he  was  not  one  of  the  active  prosecutors  in  the 
case,  he  concurred  ultimately  in  the  conclusion  come  to, 
that  there  could  be  no  consistency  in  allowing  him  to 
remain  as  an  authorized  teacher  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Church. 

As  for  Irving,  there  were  personal  reasons  why  he 
should  not  appear  conspicuously  in  conflict  with  him. 
He  had  been  his  assistant  in  St.  John's ;  and  they  were 
warm  friends.  But  he  early  formed  a  decided  opinion 
about  his  aberrations,  and  had  no  hesitation  in  assenting 


104  FIRST  YEARS  IN  EDINBURGH. 

to  the  propriety  of  his  license  being  withdrawn  when  he 
had  been  compelled  to  leave  Regent  Square  Church  and 
begin  a  new  "  cause ''  in  Newman  Street. 

Various  things  had  before  that  occurred  to  reconcile 
him  to  such  an  issue.  He  had  seen  Irving's  tendency 
to  eccentricity  in  Glasgow.  "  He  did  not,"  he  tells, 
"attract  a  large  congregation  there,  but  he  completely 
attached  to  himself  and  to  his  ministry  a  limited  number 
of  persons  with  whose  minds  his  own  was  in  affinity.  I 
have  often  observed  this  effect  produced  by  men  whose 
habits  of  thinking  and  feeling  are  peculiar  or  eccentric. 
They  possess  a  niagnetic  attraction  for  minds  assimilated 
to  their  own." 

Again,  referring  to  the  lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  Irving 
in  Edinburgh  on  the  subject  of  prophecy  in  1828,  he 
writes :  *'  For  the  first  time  heard  Mr.  Irving  in  the 
evening.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  is  quite 
woful.  There  is  power,  and  richness,  and  gleams  of  ex- 
quisite beauty,  but  withal  a  mysticism  and  an  extreme 
allegorization  which  I  am  sure  must  be  pernicious  to  the 
general  cause." 

When  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Regent  Square, 
London,  was  finished,  Chalmers  agreed  to  open  it,  and 
what  happened  there  is  reported  by  himself  in  the  follow- 
ing way  : — 

"  The  congregation,  in  their  eagerness  to  obtain  seats, 
had  already  been  assembled  about  three  hours !  Irving 
said  he  would  assist  me  by  reading  a  chapter  for  me  in 
the  first  instance.  He  chose  the  very  longest  chapter  in 
the  Bible,  and  went  on  with  his  exposition  for  an  hour 
and  a  half.  "When  my  turn  came,  of  what  use  could  I  be 
in  an  exhausted  receiver." 

In  short,  Irving  was  one  of  those  men  who  could  not  be 


FIRST  YEARS  IX  EDINBURGH.  105 

trusted  to  move  in  ordinary  grooves.  He  required  a 
place  for  himself.  And  although  it  would  have  been 
better  for  his  own  fame  and  his  own  usefulness  if  he 
could  have  agreed  to  be  more  amenable  to  rule  and  order, 
it  was  best  for  himself,  and  best  for  the  Church,  that  the 
tie  was  cut  between  them,  and  he  was  left  free  to  pursue 
his  course  alone. 

There  is  just  one  other  glimpse  which  we  may  take  of 
Chalmers  in  this  chapter.  In  1830  William  IV.  ascended 
the  throne,  and  a  deputation  from  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  sent  to  London  to  tender  to  him  its  congratulations. 
Chalmers  was  one  of  the  deputation ;  and  in  one  of  those 
letters  to  his  children,  of  which  there  are  so  many,  and 
which  are  so  delightful  on  account  of  their  playfulness 
and  affection,  he  gives  a  bright  picture  of  the  levee  which 
he  attended.  "Our  deputation,"  he  says,  "made  a  most 
respectable  appearance  among  them,  with  our  cocked 
three-cornered  hats  under  our  arms,  our  hands  upon  our 
breasts,  and  our  gowns  of  Geneva  upon  our  backs.  Mine 
did  not  lap  so  close  as  I  would  have  liked,  so  that  I  was 
twice  as  thick  as  I  should  be,  and  it  must  have  been 
palpable  to  every  eye  at  the  first  glance  that  I  was  the 
greatest  man  there,  and  that  though  I  took  all  care  to 
keep  my  coat  unbuttoned  and  my  gown  quite  open ;  how- 
ever, let  not  mamma  be  alarmed,  for  I  made  a  most  re- 
spectable  appearance,  and   was   treated  with  the  utmost 

attention We  all  made  a  low  bow  on  our  first  entry, 

and  the  king,  seated  on  the  throne  at  the  opposite  end, 
took  off  his  hat,  putting  it  on  again.  We  marched  up  to 
the  middle  of  the  room  and  made  another  low  bow,  when 
the  king  again  took  off  his  hat.  We  then  proceeded  to 
the  foot  of  the  throne  and  all  made  a  third  low  bow,  on 


106  FIRST  YEARS  IX  EDINBURGH. 

which  the  king  again  took  off  his  hat.  After  this  the 
Moderator  read  his  address,  which  was  a  little  long,  and 
the  king  bowed  repeatedly  while  it  was  reading." 

The  fun  of  all  this  Chalmers  thoroughly  appreciated, 
although  there  was  no  man  in  his  Majesty's  dominions 
who  was  then  a  more  loyal  upholder  of  all  the  institutions 
of  the  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY. 


PROOF  of  the  estimation  in  which  Chalmers 
was  now  held  by  the  whole  Church  was  given 
in  his  election  to  the  Moderatorship  of  the 
Assembly  in  1832.  He  was  then  only  fifty- 
two  years  of  age,  younger  than  most  of  the  men  have 
been  who  have  filled  that  oflice,  and  his  appointment 
was  seconded  in  a  very  graceful  way  by  Princijial  Mac- 
farlan.  The  principal  was  an  outstanding  member  of 
the  Moderate  pairty ;  but  that  was  not  all.  He  was 
a  pluralist,  to  whose  settlement  in  the  High  Church 
of  Glasgow  Chalmers  had  offered  a  conscientious  oppo- 
sition. 

The  Assembly  was  an  interesting  one.  Heresy  was 
still  in  the  air,  and  no  fewer  than  four  cases  of  divergence 
from  the  beaten  tracks  were  brought  under  the  notice  of 
the  Court.  One  was  that  of  an  elder,  who  appealed 
against  the  decisions  of  a  Presbytery  requiring  him,  as  a 
condition  of  office,  to  sign  the  Confession  of  Faith.  A 
second  was  that  of  a  minister,  who  insisted  on  his  being 
left  at  liberty  to  preach  whatever  doctrine  he  pleased  from 
his  pulpit.  And  a  thii'd  was  that  of  Mr.  Irving.  But 
the  swell  of  the  Row  movement  was  evidently  ^ksiding, 
and  the  attention  of  the  Church  was  now  to  be  turned  to 


108         EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AXD  EFFICIENCY. 

a  new  subject,  and  that  one  which  was  destined  to  have 
far  more  serious  consequences. 

No  fewer  than  four  Synods  and  seven  Presbyteries 
overtured  the  General  Assembly  to  take  into  consideration 
the  question  of  how  best  to  give  eifect  to  the  "  call "  of 
the  peoj)le  in  the  settlement  of  ministers.  At  the  Refor- 
mation the  doctrine  was  at  once  laid  down  that  it  is  the 
right  and  duty  of  congregations  to  choose  their  own 
pastors.  King  James,  however,  believed  in  a  better  way, 
and  he  instituted  the  system  of  patronage,  which,  with 
brief  intervals  of  suspension,  continued  in  the  Scottish 
Church  till  the  Revolution  of  1688.  It  was  then 
abolished,  but  twelve  years  later  it  was  again  restored 
under  Queen  Anne. 

For  a  time  the  lay  patrons  did  not  exercise  their  rights, 
or,  at  least,  they  did  not  enforce  them.  The  plan  of  one 
man,  and  he,  perhaps,  not  a  member  of  any  church 
himself,  judging  what  sort  of  minister  a  congregation 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with,  was  opposed  to  the  genius  of 
the  Scottish  people.  And  they  offered  to  its  execution 
such  a  determined  resistance,  that  for  years  after  the 
Revolution  no  Presbytery  ventured  to  proceed  to  the  ordi- 
nation of  a  man  who  was  not  acceptable  to  the  parish  in 
which  it  was  proposed  to  settle  him.  But  things  gradually 
changed.  The  power  of  religion  in  the  land  became  less. 
Congregations  grew  indifferent ;  patrons  showed  a  disposi- 
tion to  assert  their  legal  rights  more  firmly,  and  sub- 
servient Presbyteries  were  found  ready  to  use  the  sword 
when  necessary  to  suppress  inconvenient  manifestations  of 
the  popular  will.  By-and-by,  peace  was  restored, — the 
peace  which  comes  from  despair.  Vacant  parishes  saw 
that  tl|^e  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  opposing  whatever 
nominee  of  the  patron  was  sent  to  them ;  and  if  he  was 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY.         109 

fairly  acceptable  they  submitted  to  his  ministrations, 
while,  if  he  was  not,  those  who  wanted  something  better 
joined  the  Dissenters. 

With  the  return  of  life  to  the  Church  came  a  growing 
dissatisfaction  with  this  state  of  things ;  all  the  more  that, 
in  the  political  world,  events  had  taken  place  which  made 
the  leaving  of  Church  members  in  a  condition  of  pupilage 
look  positively  ridiculous.  By  the  passing  of  the  Reform 
Bill,  it  had  been  declared  that  all  possessed  of  a  certain 
money  qualification  were  capable  of  taking  a  part  in  the 
election  of  the  country's  legislators ;  and  it  did  seem  a 
little  absurd  to  say  that  nobody  but  a  lay  patron,  whom 
the  accident  of  birth  had  made  the  owner  of  land,  was  fit  to 
pronounce  upon  the  suitability  of  this  man  or  the  other  to 
preach  to  a  particular  congregation. 

Happily,  amid  all  the  changes  in  the  law  which  had 
taken  place,  the  form  of  consulting  the  people  had  never 
been  expressly  abandoned.  Even  in  the  earliest  times  it 
had  been  the  custom  for  the  presentee  to  preach  in  the 
vacant  pulpit  for  which  he  was  destined,  and  for  the  Pres- 
bytery to  meet  with  the  people,  to  learn  whether  they 
were  willing  to  give  him  a  "  call "  or  invitation  to 
the  place.  This  form  had  become  a  farce.  Presby- 
teries had  proceeded  to  settlements  when  there  was 
no  more  than  one  name  attached  to  the  call.  Still  the 
ancient  framework  remained,  and  what  now  began  to  be 
agitated  was  the  question  of  whether,  by  vitalizing  the  old 
form,  such  a  voice  might  not  be  given  to  the  people  in  the 
choice  of  their  ministers  as  might  meet  and  satisfy  the 
demand  that  had  sprung  up  for  popular  election  in  the 
Church  as  well  as  in  the  Commonwealth. 

Tlie  Moderates,  however,  were  deaf  to  the  knocking  that 
had  come  to  the  door.     There  was  an  Evangelical  Modera- 


110        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY. 

tor  in  the  chair  of  the  Assembly,  but  Dr.  Cook  still  com- 
manded the  majority  on  the  floor.  And  while  Professor 
Brown  of  Aberdeen  proposed  that  the  overtures  be 
remitted  to  a  committee  for  consideration,  Principal  Mac- 
farlan  moved  (and  carried  by  129  to  44)  that  "the 
Assembly  judge  it  unnecessary  and  inexpedient  to  adopt 
the  measures  recommended  in  the  overtures  now  be- 
fore it." 

One  can  picture  to  oneself  the  smile  of  satisfaction 
which  mantled  the  face  of  Dr.  Cook  when  he  learned  the 
state  of  the  vote.  There,  he  would  no  doubt  say,  that 
matter  has  received  its  quietus  !  But  the  INIoderates  have 
never  been  famous  for  discerning  the  signs  of  the  times. 
They  have  usually  resisted  all  improvements  until  further 
resistance  was  seen  to  be  hopeless,  and  they  have  given  in 
only  after  irretrievable  mischief  has  been  done.  The  jDro- 
posal  to  see  whether  something  could  not  be  made  of  the 
call  had  not  received  its  quietus. 

Next  year  the  matter  was  brought  up  afresh,  and 
Chalmers  himself,  no  longer  tied  to  the  chair,  was  able  to 
assume  the  practical  leadership  of  the  Evangelical  party. 
He  moved  that  the  dissent  of  a  majority  of  male  heads  of 
families,  being  communicants,  should  have  the  effect  of 
setting  aside  the  presentation  of  a  patron,  unless  that  dis- 
sent could  be  proved  to  be  based  on  a  corrupt  and  malicious 
combination.  His  following  was  greater  than  that  of 
Professor  Brown  in  1832.  He  was  beaten  only  by  a 
majority  of  twelve.  But  still  he  was  beaten.  The  tide 
had  not  yet  quite  turned.  And  it  was  reserved  for  Lord 
Moncreiff",  in  1834,  to  achieve  the  fir,st  decisive  victory  in 
the  great  conflict  which  had  now  fairly  begun.  In  that 
year  there  passed  the  Veto  Lav),  which  was  constructed  in 
terms  of  the  motion  which  Chalmers  made  in  1833. 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND   EFFICIENCY.         Ill 

It  is  not  necessary  at  this  time  of  day  to  vindicate  the  •/ 
rights  of  the  Christian  people.  All  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Scotland  have  now  adopted  the  practice  of 
popular  election,  and  may  be  assumed  to  approve  of  the  •• 
principle.  But  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  speaking 
public  opinion  was  not  so  advanced,  and  those  who  then 
agitated  for  the  moderate  reform  described  were  exposed 
to  as  much  abuse  as  if  they  were  radicals  and  revolution- 
aries. 

The  real  truth  was,  however,  that  the  Veto  Act  was  in 
spirit  a  conservative  measure.  Lord  Moncreiff  and  others 
saw  that  a  new  era  had  begun,  that  the  tide  of  change  was 
coming  in  upon  all  the  institutions  of  the  country  like  a 
flood ;  and  it  was  actually  to  preserve  patronage,  which 
he  thought  had  its  own  value,  that  he  proposed  a  conces- 
sion to  meet  the  reasonable  demands  of  the  people.  They^ 
he  believed,  had  their  own  legal  place  to  fill  in  connection 
with  the  settlement  of  ministers,  and,  in  freely  allowing 
them  to  occupy  that  place,  he  considered  that  he  was 
doing  what  was  most  prudent  in  the  interest  of  the 
Establishment  as  it  was. 

Tlie  time  came  when  the  Moderates  tried  to  upset  the 
decision.  They  said  that  it  was  not  legal,  that  the 
Assembly  had  no  right  to  pass  it,  and  so  on ;  but,  besides 
that  the  contrary  could  lae  affirmed  with  an  imposing 
show  of  reason,  nothing  could  be  more  short-sighted  for 
their  own  interest  than  the  policy  of  opposition  which 
they  elected  to  pursue.  They  would  keep  everything  and 
concede  nothing;  and  the  result  is,  that  after  breaking  up 
the  Church  they  have  lost  completely  the  very  institution 
for  whose  sake  they  fought.  Patronage,  in  its  then  form, 
which  Lord  Moncreiff  would  have  conserved,  has  been 
abolished ;  and  whatever  may  be  thought  about  that  result 


112        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIEXCY, 

now,  Dr.  Cook  and  Principal  Macfarlan  would  certainly 
have  hesitated  about  their  course  of  procedure  if  they 
could  have  foreseen  how  it  would  end.  It  has  become 
again  the  fashion  in  some  quarters  to  speak  well  of  the 
Moderates,  as  if  they  were  the  wise,  temperate,  deep- 
thinking  men  of  their  generation.  Nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  truth.  It  can  be  conclusively  demonstrated 
that,  even  as  Church  politicians,  they  were  as  blind  as  the 
Bourbons. 

It  was  not  till  some  years  later  that  the  other  conflict 
began — that  about  the  essential  nature  of  a  Christian 
Church  and  its  rights  as  a  kingdom  within  a  kingdom. 
Meanwhile,  a  new  life  was  seen  stirring  throughout  the 
whole  country.  Duflf,  who  had  been  ordained  under  the 
presidency  of  Chalmers  in  1829  as  the  first  missionary  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  returned  in  1835  to  tell  of  his 
*'  unparalleled  success "  in  Calcutta ;  and  in  the  course  of  a 
tour  which  he  made  over  Scotland,  he  awakened  by  his 
eloquence  an  altogether  unprecedented  enthusiasm  in  the 
cause  of  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  Good  people 
then  began  to  ask  if  Israel  was  to  be  forgotten ;  and  the 
result  was  M'Cheyne  and  Bonar's  mission  of  inquiry  into 
the  condition  of  the  Jews  in  their  own  land.  The  state  of 
our  own  countrymen  in  the  colonies  also  became  a  matter 
of  concern,  and  a  scheme  was  instituted  for  their  benefit. 
And,  in  short,  one  after  another,  the  revived  Church  took 
up  its  responsibilities,  and  addressed  itself  to  the  discharge 
of  them  with  a  whole-heartedness  which  implied  that  no 
thought  of  the  coming  troubles  had  yet  entered  into  its 
mind. 

In  these  efibrts  to  increase  the  usefulness  of  the  Church 
Chalmers  took  a  great  part.  What  he  especially  set  his 
heart  upon  was,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  express  it,  "  a 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AND   EFFICIENCY.         113 

snrfficiently  thick-set  Estahlishmeyit."  He  saw  enough  in 
Glasgow  and  elsewhere  to  convince  him  that  multitudes  of 
people  were  living  without  religion,  because  there  were  no 
places  of  worship  to  which  they  could  go,  and  no  Christian 
agencies  looking  after  them.  And  when,  in  1834,  he  was 
appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  the  Convener  of  a 
new  "  Church  Accommodation  Committee,"  he  said — "  I 
can  truly  affirm  that,  had  I  been  left  to  make  a  choice 
among  the  countless  diversities  of  well-doing,  this  is  the 
one  office  that  I  should  have  selected  as  the  most  congenial 
to  my  taste." 

For  several  years  the  country  rang  with  the  subject  of 
Church  extension.  The  theory  of  Chalmers  was,  that 
the  buildings  needed  should  be  erected  by  voluntary  con- 
tributions, but  that  the  Government  should  supply  a  part 
at  least  of  the  endowments  required  for  the  maintenance 
of  an  additional  staff  of  ministers.  By  this  time,  however, 
the  Dissenters  had  attained  to  considerable  political  influ- 
ence in  the  State,  and  first  the  Whigs  and  then  the  Tories 
refused  to  respond  to  the  appeals  which  were  made  to 
them  for  help.  But  the  disappointment  did  not  prove  in 
anyway  disastrous  to  the  scheme.  "As  the  ear  of  the 
Govex'nment  seemed  to  close,  the  ear  of  the  country  seemed 
to  open." 

For  Church  extension,  as  he  himself  was  wont  to  put  it, 
he  knocked  at  the  door  of  a  Whig  ministry ;  and  they 
refused  to  endow.  He  then  knocked  at  the  door  of  a  Tory 
ministry ;  they,  perhaps,  would  ha^'e  endowed,  but  they 
offered  to  enslave.  He  then  turned  aside  from  both  to 
knock  at  the  door  of  the  general  population. 

The  appeal  thus  made  to  the  people  brought  back  a 
magnificent  response.  In  a  few  months  a  sum  of  £300,000 
was  subscribed,  and  in  all  the  great  cities  and  other  centres 

(636)  8 


114        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AXD  EFFICIENCY. 

of  population  additional  ecclesiastical  edifices  began  to  be 
reared.  AVitliin  seven  years  no  fewer  than  two  hundred 
and  twenty  new  churches  were  added  to  the  strength  of 
the  Establishment.  No  wonder  that  Chalmers  came  to 
speak  of  this  era — the  era  of  the  Church's  extension — as 
one  which  was  "as  broadly  marked  and  as  emphatically 
presented  to  the  notice  of  the  ecclesiastical  historian  as 
any  which  it  was  customary  to  consider  as  instances  of 
signal  revival  and  divine  interposition." 

In  these  years  honours  came  thick  upon  him.  He  was 
elected  in  1834  first  a  Fellow  and  then  a  Vice-President  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh.  About  the  same  time 
came  a  most  unexpected  intimation  from  Paris  that  he  had 
been  chosen  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Royal  Insti- 
tute of  France.  And  in  the  summer  of  1835,  a  still  more 
gratifying  compliment  was  paid  in  his  ha\TJig  the  degree 
of  LL.D.  confen'ed  upon  him  by  the  University  of 
Oxford. 

Chalmers  had  long  felt  in  many  ways  the  fascinations 
of  England.  He  admired  its  scenery,  he  liked  its  people, 
he  venerated  its  national  Church,  he  experienced  unbounded 
delight  in  visiting  its  cathedrals,  and  for  its  ancient  univer- 
sity seats  he  had  the  reverence  of  a  devotee. 

His  reception  at  Oxford,  therefore,  made  a  very  bright 
spot  in  his  history  ;  and  all  the  more  that  he  was  at  the 
time  harassed  by  his  vain  efforts  to  procure  Government 
aid  for  his  scheme  of  Church  extension. 

"We  are  living,"  he  wrote,  "with  the  Professor  of 
Divinity  at  Christ  Church,  Dr.  Burton,  where  we  are 
entertained  with  'all  the  elegance  of  lettered  hospitality.' 
I  walk  about  in  a  doctor's  black  gown,  with  the  com- 
mon university  cap The  most  interesting  introduction 


EFFOUTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY.         115 

which  I  have  had  in  Oxford  is  to  Keble  the  poet,  author 
of  'The  Christian  Year.'" 

"  Rarely  have  I  witnessed  as  much  enthusiasm  in  tlie 
Oxford  Theatre,"  wrote  Lord  Elgin,  who  was  present  as  a 
student,  "  as  was  manifested  when  he  presented  himself  to 

go  through  the  ceremony  of  admission Dr.  Chalmers  was 

himself  deeply  affected  by  the  warmth  with  which  he  was 
greeted,  and  I  think  I  might  almost  venture  to  say  that  he 
looked  upon  this  visit  to  Oxford  as  one  of  the  most  pleas- 
ing incidents  in  his  cai'eer." 

These  gleams  of  sunshine  were  succeeded,  in  1836,  by 
a  very  bitter  trial.  There  are  not  many  now  living  who 
have  any  distinct  remembrance  of  what  was  involved  in 
"the  Moderatorship  controversy."  But  those  few  who 
are  able  to  go  back  upon  it  tell  how  it  wrought  a  wide- 
spread devastation — separating  for  the  time  chief  friends, 
and  making  a  breach  in  the  Church  which  was  not 
healed  for  years.  It  arose  out  of  the  proposal  to  elevate 
Principal  Lee  to  the  chair  of  the  Assembly.  This  proposal 
was  vehemently  resisted  by  Chalmers,  who  did  not  con- 
sider Lee  to  be  sound  upon  the  burning  question  of  the 
moment — the  need  of  Government  interference  to  secure  a 
sufficiently  "thick-set  Establishment."  Some  of  those  who 
took  a  lead  in  the  Evangelical  movement  did  not  agree 
with  liim  in  liis  opposition,  and  appeared  openly  as  Lee's 
supporters.  The  controversy  rapidly  extended,  and  became 
keen  and  personal ;  and  men  who  before  were  united  in 
one  band  for  the  Church's  good,  came  to  pass  each  other  as 
strangers  in  the  street. 

One  of  those  who  suffered  in  this  storm  was  the  late 
Lord  Cowan,  from  whom,  only  a  month  or  two  before  his 
death,  we  received  a  most  painfully  interesting  account  of 


116         EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY. 

the  Moderatorsliip  episode.  He  had  taken  an  active  and 
laborious  part  in  the  Church  extension  agitation ;  but  he 
befriended  Lee,  and  for  some  years  Chalmers  and  he  passed 
"^  without  a  sign  of  mutual  recognition.  The  time  came, 
however,  when  the  liberty,  and  therefore  the  very  Hfe,  of 
the  Church  was  threatened;  and  a  sense  of  common  danger 
began  to  draw  together  again  those  who  had  been 
estranged.  The  face  of  the  good  old  judge  softened  as  he 
proceeded  to  tell  how  his  reconciliation  took  place.  He 
was  passing  along  one  of  the  principal  streets  of  Edinburgh 
when  he  saw  Chalmers  at  a  little  distance  coming  up  a 
cross  street.  He  continued  his  walk,  however,  as  if  he 
had  seen  a  stranger.  But  he  was  suddenly  brought  to  a 
stand  by  a  hearty  voice  calling  out  his  own  name.  He 
stopped;  Chalmers  came  up  with  a  face  full  of  earnestness 
and  kindness,  shook  him  cordially  by  the  hand,  and  putting 
his  arm  within  his,  proceeded  to  pour  into  his  ear  his 
thoughts  and  hopes  about  the  Church's  conflict.  The 
Moderatorsliip  controversy  was  forgotten  in  view  of  far 
higher  interests. 

As  an  illustration  of  Chalmers's  character  the  controversy 
is  suggestive,  as  showing  how  absorbing  was  his  interest  in 
Church  extension,  and  with  what  passionate  energy  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  work. 

Engaged  as  he  was  in  strengthening  his  own  Church  in 
Scotland,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  take  a  keen  interest 
also  in  the  other  Established  Churches  of  the  country. 
These  were  being  attacked  from  various  quarters.  To 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  Dissenters  and  others,  various 
commissions  of  inquiry  had  been  appointed,  and  some  of 
the  reports  given  in  as  the  result  had  produced  a  feeling 
of  wide-spread  anxiety.     Among  other  recommendations 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AND   EFFICIENCY.         117 

offered  this  was  one,  that  the  Irish  Establishment  should  he 
reduced  and  the  funds  so  saved  devoted  to  other  than  eccle 
siastical  purposes.  Such  politicians  as  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington became  greatly  alarmed  at  the  course  of  events  as 
thus  indicated.  "  People  talk,"  said  his  Grace,  "  of  the  war 
in  Spain  and  the  Canada  question,  but  all  that  is  of  little 
moment.  The  real  question  is,  Church,  or  no  Church  ?  " 
And  so  too  thought  many  earnest  individual  Christians. 
To  stem  a  tide  which  threatened  to  work  such  mischief,  it  ( 
was  proposed  to  take  systematic  measures  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  public  mind.  A  course  of  lectures  in  London 
on  Church  Establishments  was  projected.  Chalmers  was 
invited  to  deliver  them,  and  he  consented. 

The  first  of  these  lectures  was  given  on  the  25th  of 
April  1838,  the  audience  being  remarkably  select,  royalty 
itself  being  represented  in  the  person  of  the  Duke  of  Cam- 
bridge. "  From  the  first  word  that  escaped  the  lips  of 
the  lecturer  till  the  concluding  sentence,  which  died  away 
amid  the  acclamations  of  the  audience," — so  say  the  news- 
papers of  the  day, — "  the  vivid  interest  was  sustained  with 
a  deep  and  unflagging  intensity."  — 

A  still  larger  gathering  assembled  to  hear  the  second 
lecture, — peers,  prelates,  and  M.P.'s  all  displaying  an  extra- 
ordinary eagerness  to  hear  the  eloquent  Scotchman.  And 
still  from  day  to  day  the  tide  rose  and  swelled,  until  at  the 
close  the  enthusiasm  broke  through  all  bounds.  "  Carried 
away  by  the  impassioned  utterance  of  the  speaker,  long 
ere  the  close  of  some  of  his  finest  passages  was  reached  l- 
the  voice  of  the  lecturer  was  dro"\vned  in  the  applause,  the 
audience  rising  from  their  seats  and  breaking  out  into 
tumultuous  approbation."  "The  doctor,"  writes  an  eye- 
witness, "  sat,  when  delivering  his  lectures,  behind  a  small 
table,  the  hall  in  front  being  densely  crowded  with  one  of 


118        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH  REFORM  AXD  EFFICIEKCY. 

the  most  brilliant  audiences  that  ever  assembled  in  Britain. 
It  was  supposed  that  at  least  five  hundred  of  those  present 
"were  peers  and  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
sitting  attitude  of  Dr.  Chalmers  seemed  at  first  irrecon- 
cilable with  much  energy  or  effect.  But  such  an  anticipa- 
tion was  at  once  dispelled  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  speaker, 
responded  to,  if  possible,  by  the  still  more  intense  enthu- 
siasm of  the  audience ;  and  occasionally  the  effect  was  even 
greatly  increased  by  the  eloquent  man  springing  uncon- 
sciously to  his  feet  and  delivering  with  overwhelming  effect 
the  more  magnificent  passages, — a  movement  which,  on 
one  occasion  at  least,  was  imitated  by  the  entire  audience, 
when  the  words,  '  The  king  cannot !  the  king  dare  not ! ' 
were  uttered  in  accents  of  prophetic  vehemence  that  must 
still  ring  in  the  ears  of  all  who  heard  them,  and  were 
responded  to  by  a  whirlwind  of  enthusiasm  which  was 
probably  never  exceeded  in  the  history  of  eloquence." 

Nine  bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  were  present 
during  the  delivery  of  the  closing  lecture  of  the  series.  So 
profound  an  impression  was  made  by  the  course  on  the 
moneyed  people  of  London  that  they  forthwith  sub- 
scribed £5000  in  aid  of  the  Church  extension  move- 
ment in  Scotland.  And  when  the  lectures  were  published, 
— proving,  as  their  title  claimed  that  they  had  done,  that 
"  the  establishment  and  extension  of  National  Churches 
afford  the  only  adequate  machinery  for  the  moral  and 
Christian  instruction  of  a  people," — they  were  scattered 
broadcast  over  the  land,  as  supplying  the  most  powerful 
possible  counteractives  to  the  levelling  doctrines  which 
were  then  being  disseminated. 

Tliere  is  something  almost  pathetic  in  the  thought  that 
the  time  was  then  not  far  distant  when  the  lecturer 
himself  was  to  take  the  lead  in  the  setting  up  of  a  Dis- 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AND   EFFICIENCY.         119 

established  Church.  But  a  very  cursory  glance  at  the 
lectures  themselves  will  show  how  utterly  consistent  he 
was  throughout.  He  valued  an  Establishment  because 
of  its  practical  utility.  If  it  was  rightly  constituted,  and 
left  free  to  do  its  own  full  work,  he  had  unbounded  confi- 
dence in  its  capabilities.  But  he  never  for  a  moment  for- 
got that  a  State  alliance  might  be  purchased  at  too  dear  a 
rate ;  and  when,  a  few  years  later,  he  withdrew  from  his 
chair  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh  rather  than  submit 
to  the  new  conditions  imposed  on  his  Church  by  the  Court 
of  Session,  his  testimony  to  the  supreme  importance  of 
spiritual  freedom  was  all  the  weightier  that,  so  short  a 
while  before,  he  had  spoken  so  strongly  and  so  publicly  in 
vindication  of  Establishments. 

How  entirely  unsuspicious  he  was  of  the  existence  of  a 
door  through  which  the  State  might  enter  into  the  Church 
and  ravage  it,  is  seen  by  the  explanation  which  he  oflered 
to  his  brilliant  audience  of  the  then  relations  of  Church 
and  State  in  Scotland  : — 

"  We  have  no  other  communication  with  the  State,"  said 
he,  "  than  that  of  being  maintained  by  it,  after  which  we 
are  left  to  regulate  the  proceedings  of  our  great  home 
mission  with  all  the  purity,  and  the  piety,  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  any  missionary  board.  We  are  exposed  to 
nothing  from  without  which  can  violate  the  sanctity  of  the 
apostolical  character,  if  we  ourselves  make  no  surrender  of 
it.  In  things  ecclesiastical  we  decide  all.  Some  of  these 
thmgs  may  be  done  wrong,  but  still  they  are  our  majorities 
which  do  it.  They  are  not,  they  cannot  be  forced  upon  us 
from  without.  We  own  no  head  of  the  Church  but  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

At  the  very  time  these  words  were  spoken  there  were 
signs  of  a  coming  storm.      A  month  or  two  before,   the 


120        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY. 

Court  of  Session  had  pronounced  a  judgment  in  the  famous 
Auchterarder  case,  which  seemed  to  indicate  that  a  claim 
would  be  put  forward  by  the  State  to  interfere  in  ecclesi- 
astical matters  if  it  thought  fit.  But  the  gravity  of  the 
crisis  was  not  then  realized,  and  Chalmers  no  doubt  thought, 
as  the  Assembly  of  1838  believed,  that  a  firm  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  Church  would  prevent  any  serious  attempt 
being  made  on  its  inherent  independence. 

Belonging  to  this  era  in  Chalmers's  life  are  some  inter- 
esting episodes  in  which  other  aspects  of  his  character 
appear.  We  have  referred  to  one  or  two  of  these  already, 
— such  as  his  tour  among  the  cathedral  cities  of  England, 
and  his  short  residence  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  An- 
other pleasant  event  was  his  first  excursion  to  France.  He 
spent  nearly  three  weeks  in  Paris,  and  then  made  a  short 
tour  in  Normandy.     This  was  in  June  1838. 

Among  others  on  whom  he  called  was  Guizot.  "  Found 
liim,"  he  writes,  "  at  home.  He  speaks  English  tolerably. 
Struck  with  the  smalhiess  of  his  establishment ;  certainly 
not  superior  to  the  average  of  the  "Writers  to  the  Signet 
in  Edinburgh.  Mentioned  my  'Christian  and  Civic 
Economy. '  Told  him  how  much  his  opinions  on  education 
Avere  valued  in  England.  He  said  that  the  connection  be- 
tween the  moral  and  the  economical  was  a  subject  altogether 
oieio  and  unknown  in  France.     Took  cordial  leave  of  him." 

"  Walked  over  to  the  Institute  at  twelve,  and  attended 
a  sitting  of  the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Science. 
j\I.  Mignet  introduced  me.  Taken  into  the  centre  of  the 
oval  green  table,  around  which  the  members  are  placed. 
Mignet  spoke  a  good  deal  on  business  matters,  and  seemed 
to  do  it  sensibly  and  impressively.  The  room  is  a  large 
oblong ;    the    table    annular,  and   is  an  ellipse    of   great 


EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCY.         121 

eccentricity.  Tlie  president's  platform  is  at  the  extremity 
of  the  conjugate  axis.  The  members  sit  round  the  exterior 
circumference  of  the  table,  and  the  strangers  on  two  rows 
of  forms  along  the  walls. 

"M.  Wilks  told  us  frightful  things  of  what  he  termed 
the  insolence  of  the  French  against  God  in  the  matter  of 
the  cholera.  They  introduced  it  into  their  theatres ; 
ridiculed  and  defied  it ;  boasted  that  French  science 
would  prevail  against  it ;  remained  stout  while  it  only 
visited  other  countries,  or  even  the  poor  in  their  own  ; 
till  at  length  it  came  upon  all  at  the  rate  of  one  thou- 
sand five  hundred  a  day,  when  there  was  a  universal 
terror." 

In  company  with  Mr.  Erskine,  Chalmers  paid  a  visit  to 
the  Due  de  Broglie,  and  stayed  over  a  Sunday  in  his 
chateau.  His  account  of  the  day  is  interesting,  one  of  the 
guests  being  Madame  de  Stael : — 

"  Found  the  morning  worship  party  in  the  library 
at  eleven.  The  duke  read  a  chapter  of  the  French  Bible, 
the  tenth  of  John,  at  a  table ;  the  duchess,  opposite  to 
him,  read  a  sermon,  one  of  Audeber's.  We  then  all  knelt, 
and  she  uttered  a  French  prayer.  Could  not  follow  it,  but 
her  frequent  '  O  Seigneur,'  in  a  most  devotional  tone,  went 
to  my  heart.  Whether  the  prayer  was  extemporized  or 
learned  by  heart  1  know  not.  At  three  a  small  party  con- 
versed in  the  duchess's  own  apartment,  when  I  read  a 
chapter  and  expounded.  My  topic  was  appropriation, 
from  the  tentli  of  Romans.  It  gave  rise  to  a  brief  con- 
versation. Madame  de  Stael  said  I  had  given  her  comfort. 
All  here  are  Catholics,  but  the  duchess  and  Madame  de 
Stael.  Was  shown  Diodati's  translation  of  my  '  St.  John's 
Sermons.'  Family  worship  in  the  evening,  consisting  of  a 
chapter   and   the  Lord's  Pi-ayer,  at  which  we   knelt,  the 


122        EFFORTS  AT  CHURCH   REFORM  AND  EFFICIENCV. 

duchess  officiating.  About  seven  domestics  in  the  morning, 
and  fifteen  in  the  evening." 

Chalmers  was  naturally  greatly  interested  in  the  good 
lady  who  thus  officiated  as  chaplain  in  her  family ;  and 
when,  a  few  months  after,  he  heard  of  her  death,  he  wrote 
a  warm  letter  of  sympathy  to  her  husband,  saying  in  it, 
among  other  things,  "  In  the  Duchesse  de  Broglie  1  have 
lost  the  most  exalted  and  impressive  of  all  the  acquaint- 
ances I  had  made  for  many  years.  Her  kindness  during 
the  few  days  I  lived  under  your  hospitable  roof  will  never, 
never  be  effaced  from  my  grateful  recollection.  Her  con- 
versation, and,  above  all,  her  prayers,  poured  forth  in  the 
domestic  circle,  and  which  at  the  time  of  their  utterance 
fell  upon  my  ears  like  the  music  of  paradise,  have  left  a 
fragrance  behind  them,  and  the  memory  of  them  is  sweet." 

Perhaps  there  was  no  period  in  Chalmers's  life  during 
which  his  influence  for  good  was  so  great  as  that  which 
we  have  been  reviewing  in  this  chapter.  The  service  he 
rendered  to  his  own  Church  in  connection  with  its  exten- 
sion was  immense ;  but  that  was  only  one  of  many  direc- 
tions in  which  the  expulsive  power  of  his  new  affections 
was  manifested.  His  fame  brought  him  into  intimate 
contact  with  the  higher  as  well  as  with  the  lower  classes  of 
society,  and  there  are  testimonies  innumerable  to  the  fact 
that  no  one  ever  met  him  without  being  wholesomely  im- 
pressed by  the  Christian  fervour  and  noble  simplicity  of 
his  character.  It  was  a  great  achievement  to  carry  Evan- 
gelicalism of  the  most  decided  type  into  the  slums  of 
Glasgow;  it  was  a  still  greater  to  secure  a  respectful  hear- 
ing for  it  in  the  proudest  circles  of  the  land. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 


S  a  churchman,  Chalmers  was  intensely  practical. 
He  had  no  love  for  controversy  for  its  own 
sake,  nor  was  he  ever  a  mere  doctrinaire,  '- 
concerned  above  all  things  about  the  carrying- 
through  of  abstract  theories.  What  chiefly  occupied  his 
thoughts  after  his  conversion  was  how  best  and  soonest 
to  bring  his  country  under  the  power  of  that  gospel  which 
he  had  himself  come  to  accept,  and  to  that  end  all  his 
individual  efforts  were  directed.  He  aimed  at  it  in 
Glasgow  when  he  set  agoing  his  territorial  system ;  he 
had  it  still  in  his  eye  when  he  accepted  first  a  philosophical 
and  then  a  theological  professorship ;  it  was  to  promote 
the  same  object  that  he  roused  the  country  in  the  interest 
of  Church  extension,  and  submitted  to  the  humiliation  of 
beating  like  a  dun  at  the  doors  of  successive  ministries  in 
Downing  Street ;  and  he  was  still  under  the  influence  of 
what  might  well  be  called  his  ruling  passion  when  he 
appeared  in  London  before  peers  and  prelates  and  pled  for 
the  maintenance  of  National  Establishments  of  religion. 

But  there  was  a  principle  which  had  been  burned  into 
his  mind  in  connection  with  the  study  of  political  economy 
— namely  this,  that  no  mechanical  adjustment  of  things 
will  ever  produce  satisfactory  results  if  in  that  adjustment 


124  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  EvSTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

there  is  anything  opposed  to  higher  moral  and  spiritual 
laws ;  and  he  felt  that  he  had  no  option  but  to  throw  him- 
self in  1839  into  the  conflict  which  then  began  in  earnest 
between  the  Church  and  the  State. 

He  was  a  strong  supporter  of  National  Churches,  and 
was  prepared  to  do  a  great  deal  to  secure  the  continuance 
and  extension  of  the  State's  support  to  his  own  com- 
munion. But  an  Establishment  based  on  the  assumption 
that  the  Church  might  be  exposed  to  secular  control  in 
the  discharge  of  its  own  proper  functions,  he  held  to  be, 
on  Scripture  grounds,  indefensible,  and,  on  practical 
grounds,  unworkable;  and  for  the  sake,  in  the  most  direct 
sense,  of  the  great  cause  he  had  at  heart,  he  turned  aside 
to  resist  the  attempt  which  was  made  to  impose  such  an 
Establishment  upon  Scotland. 

A  few  words  will  suffice  to  explain  the  essential  nature 
of  the  issue  which  arose  at  this  time. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  to  meet,  in  a  conservative 
spirit,  the  demand  which  had  arisen  to  secure  for  congre- 
gations an  influential  voice  in  the  election  of  their 
ministers,  the  Veto  Act  had  been  passed.  Under  that  law 
it  was  arranged  that  if  a  majority  of  male  heads  of 
families,  being  communicants,  formally  dissented  from  the 
settlement  of  a  presentee  to  a  parish,  this  dissent  was  to 
be  made  effective  by  the  Presbytery.  No  more  moderate 
measure  could  have  been  thought  of ;  for  if,  as  some  in- 
sisted afterwards,  the  rule  should  rather  have  been 
followed  of  rejecting  a  man  who  had  not  a  sufficient 
number  of  names  adhibited  to  his  call,  things  would  have 
been  worse  for  him  if  he  did  not  prove  acceptable..  People 
will  more  readily  refuse  or  neglect  to  sign  a  call  than  take 
the  positive  step  of  entering  a  dissent.  It  is  also  necessary 
to  remember  that  the  Church  was  excessively  anxious  to 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  125 

avoid  even  the  chance  of  a  collision  with  the  State ;  and 
guarantees  did  seem  to  be  given  that  the  line  was  ab- 
solutely clear,  when  a  Lord  of  Session  undertook  to 
propose  the  Veto,  when  the  Lord  Advocate  for  the  time 
being  expressed  his  belief  that  it  would  be  agreeable  to 
the  Government,  and  when  the  Lord  Chancellor,  if  he 
was  not  consulted  beforehand,  expressed  his  admiration  of 
the  measure  immediately  after  it  was  passed.  Nor  should 
it  be  forgotten  that  experience  soon  testified  to  the  value 
of  the  system.  Over  a  hundred  settlements  took  place  \ 
nnder  it,  with  content  to  the  people  and  advantage  to  the  I 
Church. 

But  there  were  two  classes  of  persons  who  could  not 
acquiesce  cheerfully  in  the  new  order  of  things.  There 
were,  first,  the  "stickit  pi'eachers,'  as  they  were  called,  '' \, 
who  had  no  hope  of  getting  a  living  except  through  the 
interposition  of  all-powerful  patrons ;  and  second,  there 
was  the  Moderate  party,  who  were  constitutionally  and  ) 
conscientiously  opposed  to  giving  the  people  any  influential 
place  within  the  domain  of  the  Church. 

To  do  the  latter  justice,  it  was  not  they  who  set  the 
heather  on  fire :  they  heaped  on  fuel  and  fanned  the 
flames  when  the  spark  was  kindled,  and  they  are  chiefly  to 
blame  for  the  present  ecclesiastical  condition  of  Scotland  ; 
but  the  person  who  applied  the  torch  was  a  "probationer," 
who  would  probably  never  have  got  into  a  manse  at  all 
if  he  had  not  stirred  up  the  civil  powers  to  help  him. 
This  probationer  was  presented  to  Auchterarder,  a  parish 
with  a  population  of  three  thousand  souls.  When  his  call 
Avas  submitted  for  signature,  only  two  persons  were  per- 
suaded to  put  their  names  to  it,  and  the  Presbytery  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  could  proceed  no  further  in  that 
matter.      But  this  was  not  the  view  of  the  case  taken  by 


126  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

the  presentee.  He  intimated  his  opinion  that  the  law 
under  which  the  Presbytery  acted  was  not  good  law — that, 
in  fact,  the  Church  in  passing  the  Veto  Act  had  exceeded 
its  powers;  and  he  appealed  to  the  Court  of  Session  to 
declare  as  much,  and  to  take  the  necessary  steps  to  secure 
his  receiving  justice.  It  is  not  needful  to  go  fully  into 
the  story.  Enough  to  say  that  the  Church  followed  the 
prosecutor  into  the  civil  courts  for  obvious  reasons.  With  - 
out  prejudicing  the  question  of  its  own  inherent  right  to 
make  any  regulation  which  might  seem  to  it  indispensable  in 
the  interests  of  true  religion,  it  recognized  the  title  of  the 
State  to  decide,  for  its  own  guidance,  whether  the  terms  of 
its  concordat  or  agreement  with  the  Church  had  been  in- 
fringed, and  it  was  anxious,  for  a  very  good  reason,  to  show 
that  it  really  had  not  been  so  infringed  in  the  present  case. 
For  it  admitted  that  if  the  State  was  not  satisfied,  it  would 
have  a  perfect  right  to  withdraw  the  temporalities. 

The  Court  of  Session,  in  1838,  by  a  majority  of  eight  to 
five,  decided  against  the  Assembly,  and  the  House  of 
Lords  a  year  later  confirmed  the  judgment.  So  far,  then, 
as  the  State  was  concerned,  the  course  was  clear.  It  was 
advised  by  its  acknowledged  legal  counsellors  that  the 
terms  of  the  concordat  had  been  broken,  and  that  the  Veto 
Act  did  involve  an  infringement  of  its  rights. 

The  conclusion  was  perfectly  intelligible,  and  it  was  one 
which,  though  much  to  be  regretted,  might  have  awakened 
no  bitterness.  When  two  parties  make  a  bargain  about 
anything,  the  right  must  be  reserved  to  each  of  judging 
whether  the  terms  of  the  bargain  have  been  kept.  But 
the  Church  was  startled  by  the  announcement,  in  speeches 
from  the  bar  and  bench,  of  principles  which  cut  far  deeper 
than  the  question  of  the  legality  of  the  Veto.  She  learned 
that  the   State  claimed  the  right  to  decide  on  disputed 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  127 

points  of  frontier,  not  for  herself  alone,  but  for  the  Church 
also;  and  she  then  wakened  up  to  realize  that  a  conflict  was 
before  her  involving  an  interest  higher  than  that  of  non- 
intrusion— the  interest,  namely,  of  spiritual  independence. 

What  the  Court  of  Session  held  upon  the  inter-relations 
of  Church  and  State  in  Scotland  may  be  gathered  from 
one  single  deliverance  of  its  Lord  President. 

"  Tliat  our  Saviour,"  said  he,  "  is  the  Head  of  the  Kirk 
of  Scotland  in  any  temporal,  or  legislative,  or  judicial 
sense,  is  a  position  which  I  can  dignify  by  no  other  name 
than  absurdity.  The  Parliament  is  the  temporal  head  of 
the  Church,  from  whose  acts,  and  from  whose  acts  alone, 
it  exists  as  the  National  Church,  and  from  whom  it 
derives  all  its  powers." 

For  a  time  it  was  not  known  how  far  those  principles  would 
be  carried,  and  in  two  successive  years,  1838  and  1839, 
the  General  Assembly  contented  itself  with  the  adoption 
of  comparatively  general  resolutions.  In  the  former  year, 
after  the  judgment  of  the  court  below  had  been  given,  but 
when  there  yet  remained  an  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  Chui'ch  felt  it  needful  to  do  no  more  than  meet  the 
Erastian  utterances  of  the  judges  by  a  counterblast  in 
favour  of  spiritual  independence;  while  in  1839,  when 
the  highest  court  had  spoken,  the  Assembly  seemed  still 
to  hope  that  things  might  mend  if  it  bowed,  so  far  as  it 
was  able  to  do  so,  to  the  decision  arrived  at,  and  agreed 
"  to  ofier  no  further  resistance  to  the  claims  of  Mr.  Young 
or  of  the  patron  to  the  emoluments  of  the  benefice  of  Auch- 
terarder."  In  other  words,  the  expectation  was  cherished 
that,  if  the  State  did  continue  to  insist  that  where  the 
Veto  Act  was  enforced  the  law  was  broken,  it  would  be 
satisfied  to  punish  the  disobedience  in  its  own  way, — that 
is,  ^vith  the  withdrawal  of  its  endowment. 


128  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

But  a  spirit  of  infatuation  seemed  at  this  time  to  take 
possession  of  the  judicial  courts  of  Scotland,  and  they  pro- 
ceeded to  pursue  a  course  which  produced  results  the  very 
reverse  of  what  tliey  wanted,  and  by  which  their  reputa- 
tion was  seriously  tarnished. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  "common  law"  that  if  a  man  steals  from 
another,  that  other  has  no  right  to  resort  to  reprisals  and 
steal  in  his  turn  from  the  thief.  But  this  maxim  was 
conspicuously  disregarded  forty  years  ago  by  our  Court  of 
Session.  It  accused  the  Church  of  crossing  the  Civil  fron- 
tier and  infringing  on  strictly  civil  rights,  and,  with  more 
vigour  than  either  justice  or  dignity,  it  avenged  itself  by 
following  the  intruder  into  her  domain  and  insisting  on 
exercising  spiritual  functions ! 

A  brief  reference  to  two  cases  will  illustrate  this  course 
of  action.  The  ministry  of  Scotland  was,  as  has  often 
been  stated,  divided  at  this  time  into  two  marked  classes, 
the  Evangelicals  and  the  Moderates ;  and  these  were 
distributed  in  such  a  way  that  certain  presbyteries  were 
preponderatingly  Moderate,  and  certain  others  were  pre- 
ponderatingly  Evangelical.  A  majority  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Dunkeld  was  Evangelical,  and  they  acted  according 
to  their  light  in  the  case  of  Lethendy.  There  the  first 
man  presented  was  vetoed,  and  the  Crown,  which  had  the 
patronage,  immediately  nominated  another  who  was  more 
acceptable  to  the  people.  But  the  rejected  presentee  was 
not  so  easily  got  rid  of.  After  all  the  steps  had  been 
taken  with  a  view  to  the  settlement  of  the  second  presentee, 
and  nothing  remained  but  the  single  act  of  his  ordination, 
an  interdict  was  issued  by  the  Court  of  Session  forbidding 
the  performance  of  that  purely  spiritual  service.  The 
Presbytery,  in  its  perplexity,  sought  counsel  from  the 
General  Assembly ;  and  its  Commission,  with  only  two  dis- 


FIGHT  FOU  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  129 

sentient  voices,  ordered  it  to  proceed.     The  right  of  the 
State  to  do  what  it  liked  with  the  benefice  was  fully  recog- 
nized, but  even  members  of  the  Moderate  party  were  indig- 
nant that  the  Civil  Court  should  come  in  and  say  to  any 
ecclesiastical  court  that  its  will  behoved  to  be  regarded        , 
even  in  such  a  matter  as  ordination.     But  the  event  showed  V  . 
that  the  Court  of  Session  was  in  earnest  in  its  determina-    [ 
tion  to  coerce  the  Church  within  its  own  province ;  for  J 
when  the  Presbytery  proceeded  to  do  as  the  Assembly 
directed,  it  Avas  summoned  to  Edinburgh  to  answer  for  itself, 
and,  if  it  was  not  consigned  to  a  jail  for  the  offence  it  had 
committed,   it  escaped    that  ignominy   only  through   the 
clemency  of  a  majority  of  the  judges. 

It  was  plainly  intimated,  however,  that  a  continuance  of 
such  clemency  was  not  to  be  calculated  on.  "I  suppose," 
said  the  Dean  of  Faculty  Hope  significantly,  "  by  this 
time  the  Church  perceives  that  the  violation  of  another  in- 
terdict is  a  matter  which  they  had  better  not  embark  in." 

"  To  me,"  replied  Chalmers,  in  reference  to  this  threat, 
"there  is  something  most  coarsely  and  revoltingly  untasteful 
in  this  bravado.  It  is  like  the  act  of  an  executioner  making 
demonstration  with  his  rope  in  the  eyes  of  his  victim  before 
he  fastens  it  on.  My  only  reply  is,  that  should  he  dare  to 
put  it  in  execution,  he  will  find  that  he  has  completely 
mistaken  the  strength  of  principle  which  exists  in  the 
bosoms  of  Scottish  churchmen." 

Chalmers  did  not  take  too  much  for  granted  when  he  ^ 
said  this,  as  was  illustrated  in  another  quarter  of  the  country, 
where  the  Court  of  Session  found  a  Presbytery  of  a  very 
different  type  from  that  of  Dunkeld.  The  Presbytery  in 
question  was  that  of  Strathbogie,  and  in  it  a  decidedly 
Moderate  element  prevailed. 

Here,  too,  there  was  a  disputed  settlement.     A  vacancy 

(636)  9 


130  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

having  occurred  in  Marnocli,  a  preacher  was  nominated  to 
the  charge  who  was  intensely  objectionable  to  the  people, 
and  only  one  man,  the  keeper  of  a  public-house,  could  be 
got  to  sign  his  call.  )  Nevertheless,  the  Presbytery,  being 
Moderates,  would  have  at  once  proceeded  to  his  settlement 
if  an  appeal  had  not  been  taken  to  the  superior  courts,  and 
if  the  General  Assembly  had  not  interposed  in  the  interest 
of  the  parish  and  directed  that  the  presentee  should  be 
rejected.  But  the  disappointed  man  was  not  to  be  sup- 
pressed. He  applied  for  help  to  the  Court  of  Session,  and 
got  it  What  followed  it  would  take  too  long  to  tell 
particularly ;  but  enough  may  be  said  to  show  what  hap- 
pened when  the  Court  encountered,  not  an  opposing  Pres- 
bytery whom  it  had  to  threaten  with  imprisonment,  but  a 
subservient  one  that  was  eager  to  do  its  bidding.  A  new 
generation  can  now  judge  as  to  which  of  the  two  was 
most  injured  in  the  end. 

Receiving  the  orders  of  the  Civil  Court  to  proceed  to  the 
settlement,  the  Presbytery  addressed  itself  to  the  congenial 
task,  regardless  of  the  warnings  and  prohibitions  of  its 
ecclesiastical  superiors.  Tlie  Church,  through  its  supreme 
court,  in  giving  sjiecific  directions  as  to  how  it  should  act, 
had  become  virtually  bound  to  bear  the  burden  of  any  un- 
pleasant consequences  which  might  follow  from  obedience 
to  its  commands;  but  this  was  nothing  to  the  Moderate 
ministers  of  Strathbogie.  To  intrude  a  man  into  a  cure  of 
souls  on  the  call  of  one  individual,  in  the  face  of  earnest 
remonstrances  from  the  whole  remainder  of  the  population, 
and  in  opposition  to  the  authoritatively  expressed  mind  of 
the  Church,  seemed  to  them  a  high  duty  when  it  was  done 
by  the  direction  of  the  civil  magistrate.  Hence  they  held 
resolutely  on  their  way,  and  step  after  step  was  taken  with 
a  view  to  the  ordination  of  the  presentee. 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  131 

This,  of  course,  was  rebellion, — as  much  so  as  that  of 
the  commander  of  an  outpost  who,  in  the  crisis  of  a  battle, 
fights  for  his  own  hand,  or  takes  his  orders,  not  from  his 
superior  officers,  but  from  the  enemy.  In  this  light  the 
matter  was  viewed  by  the  General  Assembly.  Finding 
that  the  men  were  not  to  be  arrested  by  ordinary  means, 
it  susjDended  them  from  their  ministerial  functions.  But 
even  this  was  of  no  avail.  Backed  by  the  Court  of  Session, 
which  in  effect  said,  "  Never  mind  what  the  General 
Assembly  does ;  take  your  orders  from  us  :  you  are  just 
as  much  qualified  as  ever  to  perform  spiritual  acts,"  they 
daringly  went  on  to  take  the  presentee  on  trial,  and,  in  the 
presence  of  a  rabble  who  had  gathered  from  a  distance  to 
witness  the  extraordinary  spectacle,  they  solemnly  set 
apart  Mr.  Edwards  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry.  Such 
readiness  to  serve  the  civil  as  against  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  merited  and  received  a  reward  from  the  Court 
of  Session.  A  regular  cordon  was  drawn  around  the  dis- 
trict within  which  these  "  loyal "  men  laboured,  and  civil 
pains  and  penalties  were  threatened  against  all  who  pre- 
sumed to  preach  in  any  of  their  parishes  without  their  per- 
mission. And  it  was  now  that  Dr.  Chalmers's  warning 
words  to  the  Dean  of  Faculty  came  to  be  most  conspicu- 
ously fulfilled.  The  leading  men  of  the  Church  boldly  and 
openly  violated  the  prohibition  issued  by  the  Civil  Court 
against  preaching  in  Strathbogie.  They  held  that  no  court, 
however  high,  had  any  right  to  issue  such  a  prohibition  ; 
and,  instead  of  its  coming  true  that  the  Church  drew  back 
in  fear  from  doing  what  it  considered  to  be  its  duty  on 
account  of  the  terrible  aspect  assumed  by  the  State,  it  may 
be  said  that  something  quite  the  contrary  took  place.  The 
State  became  alarmed  at  the  dangerous  commotion  it  had 
excited,  and  was  afraid  to  enforce  its  own  menaces. 


132  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

Tlie  Assembly  proceeded  to  depose  the  men  who  had 
chosen  to  defy  its  authority  to  the  uttermost.     The  Court 
of  Session  did  not  venture  to   call  to  account  a  single 
offender  for  breach  of  its  repeated  interdicts. 
f  The  truth  is,  that  that  court  did  not  come  with  much 

I  credit  out  of  the  whole  business.  It  is  a  perilous  thing  for 
-i  a  court  of  justice  to  lose  its  temper, — as  Lord  Cockburn, 
who  was  behind  the  scenes,  tells  us  it  did, — and  to  enter 
the  lists  of  a  controversy  as  a  partisan.  It  has  powerful 
Aveapons  to  use  in  a  fight — the  weapons  of  fine  and  im- 
prisonment— but  it  has  no  chance  in  the  long  run  of  suc- 
ceeding in  a  conflict  in  which  the  heart  and  conscience  of 
a  multitude  of  men  are  profoundly  engaged. 

As  for  the  Strath  bogie  ministers,  they  continued  in  the 
anomalous  condition  into  which  they  were  brought  by 
the  cruel  kindness  of  the  Court  of  Session.  The  sen- 
tence of  deposition  passed  on  them  was  never  removed,  and 
in  the  eyes  of  all  who  believe  in  Church  order  they  were 
to  the  last  simply  laymen,  administering  the  sacraments, 
Jiot  by  ecclesiastical,  but  simply  by  secular  authority. 

These  internal  conflicts,  however,  could  not  continue 
without  ruinous  consequences  ;  and  when  the  law  was 
finally  laid  down  that  a  Presbytery  was  bound  to  intrude 
a  man  into  a  parish  whether  he  was  acceptable  to  the 
people  or  not,  if  his  life  and  doctrine  were  unobjectionable, 
and  that  in  all  cases  of  disputed  jurisdiction  between 
Church  and  State  it  belonged  to  the  Civil  Courts  to  deter- 
mine for  both  which  should  give  way, — when  these  two 
jDoints  vf  ere  judicially  settled,  it  became  clear  as  day  that 
the  Evangelicals  could  not  go  on  unless  some  alteration 
was  made  on  the  constitution  of  the  Establishment.  Come 
Avhat  might,  they  could  not  assent  to  the  possibility  of  out- 
rages such  as  had  taken  place  at  Mai'noch  being  repeated, 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  133 

nor  could  they  agree  to  work  under  a  system  which  recog- 
nized the  right  of  the  Civil  Court  to  interdict  the  free 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  any  district  of  the  country. 

One  hope  remained,  that  the  legislature  would  interfere, 
and  a  succession  of  appeals  was  made  with  that  end  in  view. 
They  were  all,  however,  made  in  vain.  Our  statesmen  were 
as  blind  to  the  real  character  of  the  crisis  as  were  the  Scot- 
tish Moderates.  Indeed  the  former  were  materially  influ- 
enced by  the  opinions  of  the  latter.  Again  and  again  they 
were  assured  that  the  agitation  was  no  more  than  a  breeze 
on  the  surface,  and  that  with  a  little^r«^wess  the  commotion 
would  be  quelled.  It  does  not  say  much  for  human 
nature,  and  especially  for  such  Christian  human  nature  as 
they  had,  that  men  like  Dr.  Cook  and  others  should  have  be- 
lieved in  the  possibility  of  their  Evangelical  brethren  quietly 
acquiescing  in  the  want  of  what  they  professed  to  regard  as 
vital  when  they  saw  that  the  thing  was  not  to  be  given. 

But  such  a  delusion  was  cherished.  A  disruption  was 
rendered  inevitable.  And  time  has  brought  its  Nemesis. 
It  was  in  the  interest  of  political  and  religious  conserva- 
tism that  the  moderate  and  reasonable  demands  of  the 
Church  were  resisted.  There  was  seen  at  the  back  of 
the  Evangelical  movement  a  dreaded  spectre, — the  spectre 
of  the  democi'acy  !  And  what  has  happened  1  If  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Dr.  Cook  were  to  revisit  Scotland  at  this 
hour  they  would  lift  up  their  hands  in  amazement.  In 
order  to  conserve  a  few  privileges  of  no  great  value,  the 
Establishment  was  broken  up  ;  the  Scotch  have  become  by 
far  the  most  radical  section  of  her  Majesty's  subjects ;  and 
the  very  Church  for  which  all  the  sacrifices  were  made  has 
lost  its  patrons,  and  "  sunk,"  as  the  old-fashioned  Moderates 
would  have  expressed  it,  into  being  the  most  democrati- 
cally constituted  sect  north  of  the  Border. 


134  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

Chalmers's  connection  with  the  whole  conflict,  of  which 
we  have  given  this  brief  account,  was  most  intimate. 

From  the  outset  he  warned  the  aristocracy  against 
taking  up  a  prejudice  with  reference  to  the  reform  move- 
ments of  the  Church,  under  the  impression  that  these 
movements  were  of  a  disorderly  and  revolutionary  char- 
acter. ''There  is  no  affinity,"  said  he,  "whatever  between 
the  demand,  the  honest  demand,  of  the  common  people 
for  a  pure  gospel,  and  those  demands  which  are  lifted  up 
in  the  loud  accents  of  turbulence  and  menace  for  the  ex- 
tension of  their  rights  as  citizens.  There  is  a  total  distinc- 
tion and  dissimilarity  between  these  two  things.  Even 
an  anti-patronage  clergyman — let  alone  a  vetoist — is  just 
as  unlike  a  Chartist  or  a  Radical  as  William  Wilberforce 
is  unlike  to  "William  Cobbett." 

Speaking  at  a  later  period,  when  the  interdict  had  been 
issued  prohibiting  preaching  in  the  district  of  Strathbogie, 
and  when  it  was  thus  made  patent  to  all  that  the  question 
then  raised  was  not  merely  how  far  the  people  ought  to 
be  allowed  a  voice  in  the  election  of  their  ministers,  but 
what  amount  of  spiritual  liberty  the  Church  was  to  enjoy 
under  the  Establishment,  he  said  :— 

"  There  is  but  one  way  of  disposing  of  the  question  of 
spiritual  independence.  It  is  a  question  on  which  all  com- 
promise is  impossible ;  we  have  no  choice.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  degree,  it  is  a  question  of  principle ;  and  when 
called  to  recede  by  a  single  inch  from  that  line  of  demar- 
cation between  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil  on  which 
we  have  planted  our  footsteps  we  have  only  one  reply — 
that  we  cannot,  we  dare  not.  We  saw  the  mischief  at  its 
commencement ;  we  saw  it  in  what  may  be  termed  its 
seminal  principle  from  the  very  first  deliverance  of  the 
Civil  Courts  in  the  case  of  Auchterarder.     The  public  did 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  135 

not  comprehend,  and,  at  the  time,  did  not  sympathize  with 
us.  The  celebrated  interdict  against  preaching  has  at 
length  opened  their  eyes;  it  has  been  a  great  astonish- 
ment to  them,  but  it  was  no  astonishment  to  us.  The 
Court  of  Session  have  all  along  been  most  consistent  with 
themselves.  We  were  not  at  all  surprised  by  their  last 
inroad  on  the  hallowed  ground  of  the  Church  ;  nor  should 
we  be  in  the  least  surprised  though,  assuming  a  farther 
mastery  over  the  gospel's  most  sacred  ordinances,  they  were 
to  give  forth  their  prohibitions  and  their  mandates  on  the 
matter  of  sacraments,  as  they  have  already  done  on  the 
matter  of  sermons,  and  compel,  at  their  bidding,  the  pros- 
trate Church  to  administer  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
to  all  or  any  whom  they  shall  judge  in  a  civil  action  to 

have  made  good  their  right  to  it Be  it  known  unto  all 

men  that  we  shall  not  retract  one  single  footstep,  we  shall 
make  no  submission  to  the  Court  of  Session,  They  may 
force  the  ejection  of  us  from  our  places, — they  shall  never, 
never  force  us  to  the  surrender  of  our  principles;  and  if  that 
honourable  Court  shall  again  so  far  mistake  their  functions 
as  to  repeat  or  renew  the  inroads  they  have  already  made, 
we  trust  they  will  ever  meet  with  the  same  reception  they 
have  already  gotten — to  whom  we  shall  give  place  by 
subjection,  no,  not  for  an  hour, — no,  not  by  an  hair- 
breadth." 

That  it  might  not  be  said  that  he  fulminated  at  a  distance, 
but  was  afraid  to  placce  himself  within  reach  of  danger,  he 
went  in  person  to  Strathbogie  and  preached  in  violation 
of  the  interdict.  Perhaps  that  act  helped  to  protect  others. 
Certainly  the  minds  of  some  of  the  prelates  who  had  not 
so  long  before  listened  to  his  eloquent  defence  of  National 
Chui'ches  would  have  been  opened  to  the  suspicion  that 
something  was  seriously  amiss  if  the  news  had  reached 


136  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE   ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

them  tliat  Chalmers  was  in  prison.  Unfortunately,  as  we 
may  almost  say, — for  the  incident  would  have  had  a 
dramatic  interest, — the  word  seems  to  have  gone  forth  from 
the  higher  powers  that  the  Court  of  Session  was  "going 
too  far."  At  any  rate,  the  preachers  were  suffered  to 
return  to  their  homes  in  peace  ;  and  the  only  substantial 
result  of  the  episode  was  that  a  good  many  places  in  the 
North  which  had  been  accustomed  only  to  Moderate  doc- 
trine were  privileged  to  hear  the  truth  of  the  gospel  from 
the  li^DS  of  the  most  eloquent  men  in  Scotland. 

One  of  the  statesmen,  who  manifested  up  to  his  light 
a  sincere  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
was  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen.  He  was  not  able  to  grasp  the 
core  of  the  matter  until  it  was  too  late,  and  he  showed 
rather  a  pettish  spirit  when  his  panacea  was  not  accepted. 
But  he  did  his  best  to  heal  the  divisions  which  had  taken 
place ;  and  if  the  measure  which  he  jJi'oposed  had  com- 
manded the  support  of  the  General  Assembly,  it  might 
also  have  been  accepted  by  the  Houses  of  Parliament. 
The  measure,  however,  found  no  favour  with  the  Evan- 
gelicals. It  provided  for  a  veto  xoith  reasons,  which  ex- 
perience has  since  proved  to  be  utterly  unworkable,  and 
it  made  no  provision  for  securing  the  liberties  of  the 
Church.  On  this  last  ground,  Chalmers  offered  to  it  a 
determined  o})position. 

"Sir,"  said  he,  addressing  the  Assembly,  "it  is  a  leading 
principle  of  our  Presbyterian  constitution  that  there  is  a 
distinct  government  in  the  Church,  which  the  State  of 
i  course  must  approve  ere  it  confers  upon  us  its  temporal- 
ities ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  we  have  as  uncontrolled  a 
management  of  our  own  proper  affairs  as  if  we  received 
not  one  farthing  out  of  the  national  treasury;  that  when  in 
the  act  of  becoming  an  Establishment,  Ave,  in  the  brief  and 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FBEE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  137 

emphatic  deliverance  of  my  friend  Mr.  Gray,  '  gave  tliem 
our  services  but  not  our  liberties,'  getting  at  their  hands 
a  maintenance  for  our  clergy,  and  engaging  in  return  for 
the  Christian  education  of  the  people — a  conjunction,  wo 
think,  fruitful  of  innumerable  blessings  both  to  the 
Church  and  to  Society,  but  in  which  the  value  given  is 
many  hundred  times  greater  than  the  value  received. 
Still,  if  the  State  be  not  satisfied  with  the  bargain,  they 
can  at  any  time  give  us  up.  If,  over  and  above  our 
services  in  things  spiritual,  they  must  also  have  our  sub- 
mission in  things  spiritual,  in  these  we  have  another 
Master,  to  whom,  and  to  whom  alone,  we  are  responsible ; 
and  we  utterly  repudiate,  as  we  should  an  accursed  thing, 
the  sacrilegious  bribe  that  would  tempt  us  from  an  alle- 
giance to  him  :  for  that  in  these  things  he  has  the  sole 
and  undivided  mastery,  is  a  principle  which  lies  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  and  on  her 
giving  up  this,  as  by  the  loosening  of  a  corner  or  a  key 
stone,  the  whole  fabric  will  tumble  into  ruins.  The  estab- 
lishment of  this  as  the  principle  of  our  Church  is  the 
peculiar  glory  of  Scotland,  the  fruit  of  a  hard-won  victory 
after  the  struggles  and  the  persecutions  of  more  than  a 
hundred  years.  A  principle  which  has  cost  us  so  much 
we  are  not  now  willing  to  let  go ;  and  if  the  State  will 
insist  on  our  surrender  of  it,  or  the  forfeiture  of  our 
endowments,  we  are  willing  to  try  the  experiment  and  to 
brave  the  same  cost  over  again.  It  is  a  principle,  sir, 
that  we  have  not  forgotten,  though  it  has  been  renounced 
by  a  few  declarationists  among  ourselves,  and  though  it 
has  faded  away  from  the  recollections  and  the  feelings  of 
general  society,  like  an  old  charter  which  might  slumber 
in  its  repositories  for  generations,  while  its  articles  remain 
unbroken,  but  which  the  rude  hand  of  violence  will  recall 


138  FIGUT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

from  its  oblivion,  and  quickening  it  anew  into  vigour  and 
vitality,  "wdll  bring  back,  as  if  by  resurrection,  on  the  face 
and  to  the  observation  of  the  world.  It  is  even  so  with 
the  grand,  the  fundamental  principle  of  our  Church — its 
own  inherent  liberty  in  things  ecclesiastical — familiar  as 
household  words.  Bishop  Burnet  tells  us,  even  to  the 
humblest  of  our  peasantry,  but  which,  suffered  to  lie  quiet 
for  a  centuiy  and  a  half,  because  let  alone,  had  ceased  at 
one  time  to  be  spoken  of,  and  so  fallen  away  from  the 
memory,  even  from  the  understandings,  of  men.  From 
1688  to  1838 — from  the  time  of  the  Revolution  settlement 
to  the  time  when  the  Court  of  Session  gave  forth  its  in- 
terdict against  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld  in  the  case  of 
liethendy — no  ci\'il  power  ever  attempted  to  interfere 
with,  the  steps  of  our  ecclesiastical  procedure,  or  to  meddle 
vnih  our  Establishment  in  aught  but  the  temporalities 
which  belong  to  her.  It  was  the  disturbance  given  then 
which  has  aroused  the  Church,  and  will  at  length  arouse 
the  nation,  from  its  dormancy.  It  threw  us  back  on  the 
first  elements  of  a  question  which,  from  the  days  of  our 
great-gTand fathers,  had  been  settled  and  set  by.  When 
conjured  up  again,  it  sounded  like  an  antique  paradox  on 
many  an  ear;  but  minds  are  gradually  opening  to  the 
truth  and  sacredness  of  our  great  principle,  and  we  doubt 
not  that  the  very  agitations  of  this  controversial  period 
have  flashed  it  more  vividly  and  convincingly  on  the  under- 
standings of  men  than  heretofore.  Our  ark  is  now  in  the 
midst  of  conflicting  billows,  but  so  that  its  flag  is  all  the 
more  unfurled  by  the  storm  which  has  raised  them ;  and 
the  inscription  there,  now  spread  forth  and  expanded  in 
the  gale,  is  making  the  motto  of  our  Establishment  patent 
to  all  eyes,  that  'the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Head 
of  the   Church   of   Scotland.'      Sir,   we  have   nailed  this 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED   CHURCH.  139 

colour  to  the  mast,  and  will  keep  by  it  in  all  its  fortunes, 
whether  of  tempest  or  of  sunshine,  through  which  the  winds 
of  heaven  may  carry  it.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  Head  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  that  is  the  watch- 
word of  the  party  with  whom  I  act;  and  is  there  none 
on  the  other  side  of  the  House  to  reiterate  the  cry  1 
Yes,  many,  very  many,  perhaps  all.  And  does  not  this 
justify  the  distinction  of  treatment  that  we.  are  now 
making  between  the  two  questions  of  sj^iritual  independ- 
ence and  of  the  Veto  Law  1  And  the  only  other  distinc- 
tion I  would  press  in  the  opposite  quarter,  from  which  we 
have  now  heard  a  response  so  cheering,  is  that  which 
obtains  between  a  declaratory  and  an  effective ;  will  you 
join  us  in  making  it  effective  1  I  have  the  proud  confi- 
dence that  a  goodly  number  of  you  will ;  and,  furthermore, 
that  you  will  assert  by  deeds  as  well  as  words,  the  great 
princi])le  on  which  we  stand.  We  may  break  into  a  thou- 
sand differences  on  the  Veto  Law, — of  the  sacred  liberties 
of  our  Church  there  will  be  no  surrender," 

The  motion  in  the  Assembly  of  1841,  for  the  deposition 
of  the  Strathbogie  ministers,  was  made  by  Chalmers  in  a 
speech  which  breathed  the  same  resolute  spirit  to  main- 
tain at  all  hazards  the  freedom  of  the  Church.  Referring 
to  the  plea  which  had  been  put  forward  on  behalf  of  these 
men,  that  they  had  acted  under  the  constraint  of  con- 
science, he  said, — "  Sir,  I  know  not  what  the  inward 
principle  of  the  ministers  of  Strathbogie  may  have  been, 
nor  will  I  attempt  any  conjecture  on  the  subject ;  but  I  do 
know  that  when  forbidden  by  their  ecclesiastical  superiors 
to  proceed  any  further  with  Mr.  Edwards,  they  took  him 
upon  trial,  and  when  suspended  from  the  functions  of  the 
sacred  ministry  by  a  commission  of  the  General  Assembly, 
they  continued  to  preach  and  to  disjtense  the  sacraments ; 


140  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE   ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

that  they  called  in  the  aid  of  the  civil  power  to  back 
them  in  the  exclusion  from  their  respective  parishes  of 
clergymen  appointed  by  the  only  competent  court  to  fulfil 
the  office  which  they  were  no  longer  competent  to  dis- 
charge; and,  lastly,  as  if  to  place  the  top  stone  on  the 
Babel  of  their  proud  and  rebellious  defiance,  I  know  that, 
to  the  scandal  and  astonishment  of  all  Scotland,  and  with 
a  daring  which  I  believe  themselves  would  have  shrunk 
from  at  the  outset  of  their  headlong  career,  they  put  forth 
their  unlicensed  hands  on  the  dread  work  of  ordination, 
and,  as  if  in  solemn  mockery  of  the  Church's  most  vener- 
able forms,  asked  of  the  unhappy  man  who  knelt  before 
them  if  he  promised  to  submit  himself  humblj'^  and  will- 
ingly, in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  unto  the  admonitions  of 
the  brethren  of  the  Presbytery,  and  to  be  subject  to  them 
and  all  other  presbyteries  and  superior  judicatories  of  this 
Church,  and  got  back  from  him  an  affirmative  response, 
along  with  the  declaration  that  zeal  for  the  honour  of  God, 
love  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  desire  of  saving  souls,  were  his 
great  motives  and  chief  inducements  to  enter  into  the 
functions  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  not  worldly  designs 
and  interests.  Sir,  I  repeat  I  am  not  able  to  go  into  the 
depth  and  the  mysteries  of  men's  consciences ;  but  this  I 
am  able  to  perceive,  that  if  in  heresy  this  plea  were  sus- 
tained, the  Church  would  be  left  without  a  creed,  and  that 
if  in  contumacy  this  plea  were  sustained,  the  Church 
would  be  left  without  a  government,  both  doctrine  and 
discipline  would  be  given  to  the  winds,  and  our  National 
Church  were  bereft  of  all  her  virtue  to  uphold  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  nation,  when,  thus  helpless  and  degraded, 
she  was  alike  unable  to  correct  the  errors,  however  deadly, 
or  to  control  the  waywardness,  however  pernicious  and 
perverse,  of  her  own  children." 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE   ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  141 

As  the  catastrophe  approached,  and  the  Government  of 
the  day  grew  more  emphatic  in  its  announcements  that  it 
meant  to  "  stand  by  the  law  of  tlie  land  as  laid  down  by 
the  civil  tribunals  of  the  country," — in  other  words,  that 
it  would  do  nothing  to  make  it  possible  for  the  men  who 
had  done  most  for  the  religious  well-being  of  Scotland  to 
remain  within  the  National  Establishment, — it  became  in- 
creasingly necessary  that  no  doubt  should  be  left  on  the 
public  mind  as  to  what  would  happen  if  the  representatives 
of  the  State  continued  obstinate.  In  a  long  letter  to  Dr. 
John  Bruce,  dated  April  1842,  Dr.  Chalmers  urged  the 
putting  forth  of  a  formal  and  final  Claim  of  Rights,  which 
would  let  the  legislature  clearly  understand  how  mattei's 
stood,  and  leave  the  responsibility  of  what  might  follow 
upon  it  if  the  Claini  were  rejected. 

In  this  letter  he  urged  that  all  the  prominence  should 
be  given  to  the  point  of  spiritual  independence.  He  was 
himself  an  earnest  non-intrusionist,  of  course,  and  he 
Avould  have  been  the  last  to  agree  to  surrender  again  to 
the  patrons  those  mischievous  powers  which  they  had  been 
allowed  by  the  Moderates  to  exercise;  but  he  believed 
that  that  matter  would,  without  much  difficulty,  be 
adjusted  if  the  other  interest  were  secured.  And  on  this 
ground,  and  also  because  of  its  supreme  individual  im- 
portance, he  argued  that  it  would  be  wise  not  even  to 
name  non-intrusion  in  the  declaration,  but  coiicentrate  the 
attention  of  all  concerned  upon  the  one  consideration,  that 
if  the  Church  was  to  do  its  proper  work  in  the  country,  it 
must  be  left  free  from  secular  control. 

"It  is  not  for  Parliament,"  said  he,  "to  take  up  the 
ecclesiastical  merits  of  the  principle  of  non-intrusion,  nor 
would  I  ask  from  them  any  opinion  on  a  question  which 
is  ours,  not  theirs.      It  is  an  internal  question  wherewith 


142  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

we  alone  have  to  do  ;  the  other  is  a  boundary  question — tlie 
only  proper  one  between  the  two  parties — the  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical." 

"I  feel  it,"  he  said  again,  "a  sort  of  injustice  to  the 
cause  of  our  spiritual  independence,  or,  which  is  tantamount 
to  this,  to  the  sacred  cause  of  the  Headship  of  Christ,  to 
be  condescending  on  the  specific  question  of  non-intrusion, 
when  so  high  a  matter  is  at  issue  as  the  great  generic  and 
comprehensive  privilege  which  is  inherent  in  every  true 
Church  of  deciding  this  and  all  other  purely  ecclesiastical 
questions  for  themselves." 

And,  he  went  on  to  say  at  the  end,  the  kind  of  declara- 
tion he  desired  to  see  adopted  was  one  in  which  those 
who  agreed  with  him  would  proclaim  "  That,  rather  than 
give  up  the  final  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  things 
ecclesiastical,  they  are  willing,  if  the  hand  of  power  shall 
offer  to  inflict  such  a  violence,  to  be  stripped  of  all  the 
rights  and  advantages  which  belong  to  them  as  the 
ministers  of  a  National  and  Established  Church." 

It  strikingly  illustrates  the  insight  and  shrewdness  of 
Chalmers  that  at  so  early  a  date  he  put  his  finger  so  dis- 
tinctly on  the  one  point  which  has  always  proved  since  an 
insuperable  difficulty  in  the  way  of  adjusting  satisfactorily 
the  relations  of  Church  and  State  in  Scotland.  Parlia- 
ment has  continued  its  vain  and  mistaken  policy  of  trying 
to  settle  for  the  Church  the  internal  question  of  how  best 
to  arrange  the  pastoral  relation,  while  it  has  steadily  re- 
fused to  look  at  the  "  boundary  question,"  of  where  its 
province  ends  and  that  of  the  Church  begins.  It  has  not 
been  at  all  successful  in  its  efforts  in  the  first  connection ;  and 
as  for  the  second,  while  it  remained  unattended  to,  it  would 
have  seemed  to  such  a  man  as  Chalmers  preposterous  to  ask 
if  th*e  Establishment  were  one  such  as  he  could  re-enter. 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  143 

It  was  natural  that  Chalmers  should  be  accused  of  in- 
consistency in  speaking  so  strongly  as  he  did  in  1838  of 
the  great  importance  of  a  religious  Establishment  to  a 
country,  and  in  proposing  four  years  later  to  take  his 
Church  out  into  the  wilderness. 

One  of  those  who  seem  to  have  so  remarked  upon  his 
conduct  was  Sir  George  Sinclair ;  and  in  a  letter  written 
at  the  close  of  1841,  he  thus  replies  to  his  charges  : — 

"  You  speak  of  my  former  avowed  preference  for  a 
National  Establishment,  reminding  me  of  what  you  call 
my  own  theory.  Now,  in  my  London  lectures,  in  my 
Church  extension  addresses,  in  all  my  controversies  with 
the  Voluntaries,  in  my  numerous  writings  for  thirty  years 
back,  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church  has  been 
ever  brought  prominently  forward  as  an  indispensable 
part  of  that  theory,  and  I  have  uniformly  stated  that  the 
least  violation  of  that  indejiendence  in  return  for  a  State 
endowment  was  enough  to  convert  a  Church  Establish- 
ment into  a  moral  nuisance.  It  is  a  little  too  much, 
that  after  the  Conservatives  had  accepted  with  thankful- 
ness my  defence  of  National  Establishments,  they  should 
now  propose  to  take  away  from  me  the  benefit  of  their 
main  vindication,  or  think  that  an  advocacy  given  to  a 
National  Church,  solely  for  the  sake  of  its  religious  and 
moral  benefits  to  the  population,  should  still  be  continued, 
after  they  shall  have  converted  it  from  an  engine  of 
Christian  usefulness  into  a  mere  congeries  of  offices,  by 
which  to  uphold  the  influence  of  patrons  and  subserve  the 
politics  or  the  views  of  a  worthless  partisanship. 

"  But  you  tell  me  of  my  views  on  the  impotency  of 
Voluntaryism.  May  I  beg  your  perusal  of  my  third 
London  lecture  on  the  distinction  between  Voluntaryism 
ah  intra  and  Voluntaryism  ah  extra.     There  is  a  perfect 


144  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

identity  of  principle  between  the  latter  and  a  National 
Establishment.  I  shall  ever  regret  the  necessity  of  a 
separation  from  the  State  ;  but  if  driven  to  it  by  principle, 
it  is  a  sacrifice  which  must  and  ought  to  be  made.  I  say 
so  not  in  the  spirit  of  menace,  or  for  the  purpose  of  terri- 
fying bull-headed  Toryism  out  of  any  of  its  inveteracies, 
but  simply  to  let  you  know  that  I  for  one  shall  feel  it  my 
duty  to  draw  both  on  the  middle  and  lower  ranks,  inde- 
finitely, in  order  to  repair,  and  I  confidently  hope  to  over- 
pass, the  mischief  which  I  fear  that  our  enemies,  in  the 
obstinacy  of  their  miserable  blindness,  are  preparing  for 
our  land." 

In  short,  now  as  formerly,  he  was  acting  in  character. 
What  he  was  solicitous  about  above  all  things  was  the 
cause  of  Christ,  and  the  question  forced  upon  him  was  not 
the  abstract  one  of  whether  the  Church  might  not  with 
advantage  unite  with  the  State,  but  the  practical  one  of 
whether  the  only  Establishment  that  was  to  be  tolerated 
in  Scotland  could  reasonably  be  expected  to  serve  the 
highest  ends  of  religion.  He  came  deliberately  to  the 
conclusion  that  as  a  spiritual  instrument  it  could  not  be 
made  effective;  and  with  a  courage  and  an  elasticity  of  mind 
which  awaken  our  intense  admiration,  he  addressed  himself, 
two  years  before  the  crisis  came,  to  the  consideration  of 
what  steps  could  be  taken  to  carry  on  evangelical  work 
without  any  help  from  the  State  whatever. 

"I  have  retired,"  he  wrote  in  September  1841,  "from 
all  further  public  or  practical  management  of  the  question. 
The  truth  is,  that  I  reserve  myself  for  an  emergency. 
Should  there  be  a  disruption  of  the  Church,  I  shall  feel  it 
my  duty  to  help  forward  the  operations  of  a  great  home 
mission,  which  I  have  no  doubt  could  take  full  possession 
cf  the  country  in  a  very  few  months.      And  looking  to  the 


FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  145 

Christian  interests  of  Scotland,  I  believe  that  more  good 
could  be  done  by  such  an  instrumentality  than  by  an 
Established  Church  exposed  to  such  interferences  as  those 

of  the  Court  of  Session  for  the  last  few  years I  do  not 

give  up  my  views  on  the  mighty  good  of  a  religious 
Establishment ;  but  it  is  a  good  more  than  neutralized 
should  the  Establishment  be  so  hampered  and  restricted  as 
many  would  wish  it  to  be  who  have  really  never  studied 
the  question  of  what  the  best  method  is  for  spreading 
abroad  that  education  of  principle  which  will  prove  the 
only  counteractive,  not  to  irreligion  only,  but  to  vice  and 
anarchy  and  socialism,  and  the  whole  tribe  of  those 
moral  and  political  disorders  which  are  now  in  busy 
fermentation  all  over  the  land." 

His  fight  for  a  free  Established  Church  had  ended  in 
failure,  and  he  was  now  to  try  another  and  veiy  different 
experiment. 


(636)  10 


CHAPTER  X. 

ORGAXIZATIOX    OF    A    FREE    DISESTABLISHED    CHURCH. 

EARLY  forty  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the 
18th  of  May  1843,  but  no  one  who  was  in 
Edinburgh  that  day  is  likely  to  have  forgotten 
it.  The  present  writer,  then  an  under-gradu- 
ate  in  the  University,  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  secure 
a  ticket  of  achnission  to  St.  Andrew's  Church  ;  and  he  was 
among  the  crowd  gathered  in  George  Street  at  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  when  the  doors  were  opened  to  the  public 
into  the  meeting-place  of  the  General  Assembly.  Many 
long  hours  were  before  us  ere  the  business  was  likely  to 
begin,  but  it  was  a  great  thing  to  have  secured  a  place 
in  the  front  seat  of  the  gallery ;  and  so  intense  was  the 
excitement  which  was  then  abroad,  that  in  looking  back 
upon  that  time  afterwards  it  never  seemed  to  us  as  if  there 
had  been  experienced  during  it  anything  like  a  sensation  of 
weariness. 

At  last  three  o'clock  arrived,  and  with  it  the  Moderator, 
Dr.  Welsh,  who  had  been  preaching  the  customary  sermon 
in  St.  Giles's.  I  do  not  know  that  we  who  were  spectators 
had  any  expectation  that  what  followed  would  be  trans- 
acted so  rapidly.  I  rather  think  that  we  looked  for  some 
prolonged  proceedings.  It  was  all  over,  however,  very 
soon.      Dr.   Welsh  offered  up  a  very  solemn  prayer,  and 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     147 

then,  amid  a  silence  wliicli  was  almost  })ainful  in  its  inten- 
sity, lie  read  a  protest  to  the  effect  that,  in  respect  that 
there  had  been  an  infringement  on  the  liberties  of  the 
Church's  constitution,  so  that  the  Assembly  could  not  now 
be  constituted  without  a  violation  of  the  terms  of  union 
between  Church  and  State  in  this  land,  he  could  not  con- 
sent to  the  business  proceeding  further.  Laying  this  pro- 
test on  the  table,  he  left  the  chair  and  made  his  way 
toward  the  door  of  the  church. 

"  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  standing  immediately  on  his 
left.  He  looked  vacant  and  abstracted  while  the  protest 
was  being  read,  but  Dr.  "Welsh's  movement  awakened  him 
from  his  reverie.  Seizing  eagerly  upon  his  hat,  he  hurried 
after  him  with  all  the  air  of  one  impatient  to  be  gone." 

And  then  slowly  but  steadily  the  depletion  proceeded.  As 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  two  parties  in  the  Assembly 
had  been  accustomed  to  occupy  different  sides  of  the  chair. 
It  so  hajipened  that  the  Evangelical  benches  were  oj^posite 
the  gallery  in  which  I  sat,  and  I  saw  accordingly  row  after 
row  of  the  men  with  whose  names  we  were  all  most 
familiar  file  deliberately  out  of  the  church  and  out  of  the 
National  Establishment.  The  spectacle  was  so  extraor- 
dinary, that  for  some  time  we  looked  on  as  if  stunned. 
At  last  cries  began  to  be  heard — cries  of  admiration,  of 
anger,  of  grief — and  the  crowded  galleries  became  stirred 
like  trees  in  a  storm.  As  the  exodus  continued  every  part 
of  the  house  grew  emptier ;  great  blanks  appeared  espe- 
cially in  the  section  of  the  house  allotted  to  students  of 
divinity,  for  the  flower  of  the  young  men  naturally  followed 
their  master.  In  a  wonderfully  short  time,  however,  the 
process  was  completed ;  and  the  door  having  been  finally 
shut  on  those  whose  struggles  for  freedom  for  so  many 
long  years  back  had  been  keeping  the  Church  in  commo- 


148    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

tion,  the  victors  settled  down  with  a  sigh  of  satisfaction  to 
put  the  old  house  again  in  order. 

The  Veto  Act — "our  old  friend,"  as  Dr.  Cook  facetiously 
called  it — was  summarily  repealed.  The  Strathbogie 
ministers  were  declared  to  be  not  a  whit  the  worse  of  their 
deposition  by  the  General  Assembly.  And  all  the  extra 
parochial  ministers  who  had  been  admitted  to  seats  in 
presbyteries  were  sent  back  once  more  into  the  outer  court 
of  the  sanctuary. 

"  If  Government  is  fii-m,"  so  wrote  Dr.  Gumming  of 
London  shortly  before  the  Disruption,  "  I  venture,  from 
pretty  accurate  information,  to  assert  that  less  than  one 
hundred  will  cover  the  whole  secession.  The  few  manses 
and  pulpits  likely  to  be  vacated  will  be  filled  up  with  good 
and  holy  ministers.  The  missionary  schemes  of  the  Church 
will  not  he  overthroiim  ;  they  will  prosper  more  than  they  do 
now  hy  being  released  from  party  domination  and  incessant 
-.  quarrels  ami  squabblinys." 

Thus  the  crisis  was  looked  forward  to  with  a  light  heart, 
as  promising  a  return  of  internal  peace  with  an  increase  of 
prosperity.  There  were  miscalculations  indeed  as  to  the 
numbers  who  would  go  out.  Not  one  hundred,  but  nearly 
five  hundred  ministers  signed  the  Deed  of  Demission.  But 
the  sweep  made  of  those  likely  to  be  troublesome  was  in 
consequence  all  the  gi'eater,  and  the  chances  of  peace,  at 
least,  were,  one  might  say,  overwhelming.  From  the 
strictly  Moderate  point  of  view,  then,  the  Disrujition  was 
a  blessing.  Certainly  there  could  have  been  no  hope  of 
quietness  in  an  unchanged  Establishment,  Avith  men  in  it 
holding  the  views  of  Dr.  Chakners. 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  the  statesmen  whose 
obstinacy  in  refusing  all  concession  had  rendered  the 
catastrophe  inevitable,  continued  to  the  end  entirely  sati.s- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     149 

fied  with  their  -work.  Just  ten  years  after  1843  Dr. 
Buchanan  had  occasion  to  wait  upon  Sir  James  Graham, 
and  this  is  what  he  says  about  the  interview  :— 

"  Sir  James  Graham  was  at  pains  to  tell  us  how  deeply 
1)6  regretted  his  share  in  bringing  about  the  Disruption. 
He  said  '  he  would  never  cease  to  regard  it  with  the  deep- 
est regret  and  sorrow  as  the  saddest  event  in  his  life,  that 
he  should  have  had  any  hand  in  that  most  fatal  act.'  He 
assured  me  that  Lord  Aberdeen's  sentiments  on  that  sub- 
ject were  exactly  the  same  as  his  own.  He  came  over  the 
subject  again  and  again." 

These,  at  the  time  they  were  spoken,  were  vain  regrets. 
The  mischief  was  done,  and  it  is  very  much  easier  to  make 
breaches  than  to  heal  them.  Besides,  God  has  his  own 
ways  of  working,  and  higher  ends  were  perhaps  served  by 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Church  than  could  have  been 
achieved  by  the  conservation  of  its  integrity.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  important  in  connection  with  an  event  with 
which  Chalmers  had  so  great  a  concern  that  it  should  be 
made  perfectly  clear  who  wei'e  to  blame  in  connection  with 
it.  The  acts  of  the  first  Assembly  held  after  the  Disrup- 
tion show  unmistakably  what  party  had  triumphed.  It 
was  the  party  of  Dr.  Cook — that  party  which  was  in  haste 
to  j)roclaim  that  it  approved  of  the  principle  of  intrusion, 
and  was  prepared  to  submit  in  all  things  to  the  dictation 
of  the  Civil  Courts-.  Where  that  party  is  now  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say.  It  has  been  "  rewarded ''  for  its  faith- 
fulness by  getting  what  it  fought  to  the  death  against — 
namely,  the  abolition  of  patronage  and  popular  election — - 
and  we  are  often  assured  that  it  now  possesses  what  it 
did  not  in  the  least  care  for  either,  "  spiritual  indepen- 
dence.'' But  however  all  that  may  be,  this  is  true,  that  if 
it  had  shown  before  1843  half  the  anxiety  to  keep  men  in 


150    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISUED  CHURCH. 

the  Establishment  which  it  has  manifested  of  late  to  win 
them  back,  there  would  not  now  be  the  ominously  swell- 
ing cry  for  a  separation  of  Church  and  State  altogether. 
We  must  say  again  that  nothing  is  more  irrational  than 
to  speak  of  the  Moderates  as  the  calm,  sober,  wise,  trust- 
worthy men  of  their  generation — the  men  who  were  not 
carried  away  by  extremes,  and  to  whom  it  would  have  been 
better  for  the  country  if  it  had  oftener  listened.  The  plain 
truth  is,  that  their  standpoint  was  always  so  low  that  they 
could  not  possibly  take  a  correct  \'iew  of  their  time  and 
its  tendencies.  They  obstinately  clung  to  all,  and  they 
consequently  risked  all.  When  Dr.  Cook  jocularly  pro- 
posed in  1843  to  lay  the  Veto  Act  in  its  grave,  he  drove  a 
nail  in  the  coflSn  of  the  Establishment. 

But  to  return  to  our  story.  While  the  remanent 
Assembly  was  in  the  way  described  making  haste,  tat  the 
bidding  of  the  Civil  Courts,  to  get  back  upon  the  old  lines, 
an  enterprise  of  a  different  sort  was  being  launched  else- 
where. The  Disruptionists — a  clear  majority  of  all  the 
members  returned  that  year  to  the  supreme  court  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland — having  formed  into  a  column  in  the 
street,  marched  do\vn  to  Canonmills,  where  an  immense 
low-roofed  hall,  capable  of  containing  three  thousand  people, 
had  been  prepared  to  receive  them. 

"I  am  proud  of  my  country  !"  exclaimed  Lord  Jeffrey 
when  he  heard  that  more  than  four  hundred  had  gone  out. 
"  Tliere  is  not  another  country  upon  earth  where  such  a 
deed  could  have  been  done  !" 

"  A  friend  of  mine,"  wrote  Mr.  Gladstone  to  Dr.  E,obert 
Buchanan,  "  a  conscientious  and  earnest-minded  Roman 
Catholic,  well  acquainted  with  our  country  and  language, 
once  told  me  that,  amidst  his  discouragements  in  witnessing 
the  progress   of    unbelief   in   so   many    quarters,   he    had 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     151 

found  a  singular  comfoi't  in  the  testimony  borne  by  the 
ministers  and  members  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
to  the  authority  of  conscience  and  of  positive  religious 
belief." 

The  principle  for  which  these  men  were  prepared  to 
suffer  was  an  intelligible  enough  one.  They  counted  it  a 
matter  of  supreme  importance  that  in  a  "  free  "  State  there 
should  be  a  "free"  Church — a  Church  protected  against 
secular  coercion  and  control  in  the  execution  of  its  functions ; 
and  they  gave  evidence  of  their  determination  to  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  less  than  that  by  sacrificing  all  their  interest 
in  the  National  Establishment.  There  were  some  that 
said,  of  course,  that  they  were  martyrs  by  mistake  ;  but 
events  have  not  confirmed  that  view,  and  at  any  rate  they 
enjoyed  for  the  time  the  substantial  rewards  which  follow 
the  keeping  of  a  good  conscience. 

"Never,"  wrote  Chalmers  to  his  sister — "never  was 
there  a  happier  Assembly,  with  a  happier  collection  of 
faces,  than  in  our  Free  Church, — with  consciences  disbur- 
dened, and  casting  themselves  without  care  and  with  all 
the  confidence  of  cliildi-en  on  the  providence  of  that  God 
who  never  forsakes  the  families  of  the  faithful." 

When  the  commotion  attendant  on  taking  possession  of 
the  new  house  had  subsided,  Dr.  Welsh  proceeded  with  the 
business  which  belonged  to  his  ofiice,  and  which  had  been 
interrupted  by  the  incident  of  the  Disruption.  It  has  been 
long  the  custom  in  the  Scottish  Church  for  the  retiring 
Moderator  to  name  his  successor,  and,  after  prayer,  this 
was  what  Dr.  Welsh  went  on  to  do. 

"I  feel  assured,"  said  he,  "that  the  eyes  of  every  in- 
dividual in  this  Assembly,  the  eyes  of  the  whole  Church 
and  country  are  directed  to  one  individual,  whom  to  name 
is  to  pronounce  his  panegyric.      In  the  exhausted  state  in 


152    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

which  my  duties  have  left  me,  it  is  scarcely  in  my  power  to 
say  more ;  but  indeed  I  feel  that  more  would  be  superfluous. 
The  extent  of  his  labours  in  connection  with  our  present 
position  would  justly  entitle  Dr.  Chalmers  [the  mention  of 
Dr.  Chalmers's  name  here  was  received  with  extraordinary 
enthusiasm,  the  whole  of  the  vast  audience  rising,  cheering 
for  some  minutes  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  and  the 
house  presenting  a  perfect  forest  of  hats  and  handker- 
chiefs]— would  justly  entitle  that  great  man  to  hold  the 
first  place  in  this  our  meeting.  But  surely  it  is  a  good 
omen,  or,  I  should  say,  a  token  for  good  from  the  great 
Disposer  of  all  events  and  the  alone  Head  of  the  Church, 
that  I  can  propose,  to  hold  this  office,  an  individual  who,  by 
the  efforts  of  his  genius  and  his  virtues,  is  destined  to  hold 
so  conspicuous  a  place  in  the  eyes  of  all  posterity." 

On  taking  the  chair,  Chalmers  proposed  that  the  pro- 
ceedings should  be  resumed  with  another  service  of  praise 
and  prayer;  and  as  the  great  congregation  of  three  thou- 
■^  sand  souls,  all  thrilling  with  suppressed  enthusiasm,  sang 
the  words, — 

"  0  send  thy  light  forth  and  thy  truth; 
Let  them  be  guides  to  nie," 

a  sudden  burst  of  sunlight  filled  the  building,  and  recalled 
to  many  present  the  text  from  which  the  Moderator  had 
preached  six  months  before :  "  Unto  the  upright  light 
shall  arise  in  the  darkness." 

Dr.  Welsh,  it  will  be  noticed,  referred  in  his  speech  to 
something  which  Chalmers  had  already  done  for  the 
Church  in  its  new  position.  It  was  well  understood  that 
he  had  in  his  mind,  among  other  things,  the  wise  arrange- 
ments which  had  been  made  by  him  with  a  view  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  disestablished  ministry. 

There  was  nothing  fanatical  in  the  proceedings  of  the 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISUED  CHURCH.     153 

men  who  told  the  Government  and  the  country  that  if  the 
principles  of  Intrusion  and  Erastianism  were  to  be  forced 
upon  them,  as  conditions  of  continuing  in  the  Establish- 
ment, they  would  be  obliged  to  resign  their  interest  in  its 
endowments.  Wlien  the  catastrophe  seemed  inevitable, 
they  deliberately  addressed  themselves  to  prepare  for  it. 
Like  Noah,  they  not  only  professed  to  believe  in  the 
coming  of  a  flood,  but  gave  proof  to  all  men  that  they 
really  did  so  by  setting  about  the  building  of  an  ark  for 
the  saving  of  the  house.  And  so,  when  the  lirst  Assembly 
settled  to  its  work,  it  did  not  find  that  it  required  to  look 
with  a  blank  face  into  the  futui'e,  and  to  consider  ah  initio 
what  it  were  best  for  it  to  begin  with.  Thanks  to  the 
inventive  genius  and  splendid  administrative  talent  of 
Chalmers,  there  was  a  financial  report  ready  to  be  submitted 
to  it.  Six  hundred  and  eighty-seven  associations  for  the 
collection  of  funds  for  the  support  of  the  ministry  had  (this 
report  said)  been  already  organized.  Two  hundred  and 
thii'ty-nine  of  these  had  actually  sent  money  to  the  extent 
of  ,£17,000  to  the  general  treasury ;  and  it  was  announced 
that,  if  even  the  rate  of  giving  that  had  commenced  were 
no  more  than  maintained,  an  annual  income  was  promised 
of  £74,000. 

"  Had  the  goodly  results,"  said  Chalmers,  who  of  course 
was  convener  of  the  financial  committee,  "which  I  have  to- 
day presented  to  you  been  a  few  months  ago  spoken  of  as 
either  possible  or  probable,  the  anticipation  would  liave  been 
regarded,  as,  in  fact,  my  expressed  conviction  at  that  time 
generally  was  regarded,  as  a  vision  of  Utopia.  We  know  not 
what  the  feelings  of  such  are  when,  instead  of  presenting  the 
matter  to  the  eyes  of  their  understanding,  we  now  place  it 
before  the  eyes  of  their  senses.  Sure  we  are  it  is  far  easier 
practically  to  do  the  thing  than  to  convince  the  people 


154    ORGANIZATION  OF  A   FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

■ithat  the  thing  was  practicable.     The  difficulty  lay  not  in 

the  doing  of  the  work  when  begun,  but  wholly  in  getting 

it  begun ;    not  in  the  execution  of  the  process  after  its 

/  commencement,  but  in  overcoming  the  incredulity  which 

stood  as  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  its  commencement I 

doubt  not  there  are  a  good  many  here  who  heard  me 
predict  such  a  result  as  that  which  I  have  to-day  laid 
before  you  ;  and  I  trust  you  Avill  forgive  me  for  stating, 
though  I  am  not  a  professor  of  physiognomy,  that  when  I 
chanced  to  lift  my  eyes  off  the  paper  to  the  countenances 
of  those  who  were  before  me,  I  observed  in  them  a  good- 
natured  leer  of  incredulity,  mixed  up,  no  doubt,  with  a 
benignant  complacency,  which  they  cast  on  the  statements 
and  high-coloured  representations  of  a  very  sanguine 
Utopia.  In  order  to  overcome  this  incredulity  in  my  own 
little  sphere,  and  in  a  parish  where  eight-ninths  of  the 
aristocracy  of  the  soil  are  against  us,  I  did  begin  a  little 
association, — I  mean  the  parish  of  Morningside.  But  we 
remained  for  six  whole  weeks  in  a  state  of  single  blessed- 
ness ;  we  had  not  a  single  companion,  but  stood  as  a 
spectacle  to  be  gazed  at  with  a  sort  of  gaping  wonder,  till 
we  actually  felt  our  situation  painful,  felt  as  if  we  stood 
on  a  pillory.  But  now  that  we  have  been  followed  by  no 
less  than  six  hundred  and  eighty-seven  associations,  our 
singularity,  we  begin  to  feel,  sits  rather  gracefully  upon  us. 
"  At  the  hazard  of  being  regarded  as  a  Utopian  this 
second  time,  and  at  this  new  stage  of  our  advance,  I  will 
make  as  confident  an  avowal  now  as  I  made  then,  that  if 
we  only  make  a  proper  use  of  the  summer  that  is  before 
us  in  stirring  up,  I  do  not  say  the  people  of  Scotland,  but 
that  portion  of  them  who  are  the  friends  of  our  Protesting 
Church, — if  Ave  do  what  we  might,  and  what  we  ought, 
we  will  not  only  be  able  to  repair  the  whole  Disruption, 


ORGANIZATIOX  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED   CHURCH.     155 

but  will  get  landed  in  the  great  and  glorious  work  of 
Church  extension.  For  you  will  recollect,  that  though 
the  ap|)lication  of  the  first  portion  of  the  funds  goes 
towards,  I  will  not  say  the  support  of  the  ejected  ministers, 
but  towards  the  upholding  of  the  continuance  of  their 
services,  yet  after  that  is  secured,  and  after  the  maximum 
has  been  attained,  the  over  and  above  sums  contributed 
r  will  go,  not  to  the  augmentation  of  ministerial  income,  but 
\  to  the  augmentation  of  ministerial  services  ;  not  to  the 
(increase  of  the  salaries  of  the  ministers,  but  to  the  increase 
of  their  numbers ;  and  we  shall  not  stop  short,  I  trust,  in 
our  great  and  glorious  enterprise,  till,  in  the  language  you 
have  already  heard,  '  the  light  of  the  gospel  be  carried  to 
every  cottage-door  within  the  limits  of  the  Scottish  terri- 
tory.' This  will  open  a  boundless  field  for  the  liberality  of 
our  Christian  brethren ;  a  bright  and  beautiful  ulterior,  to 
which  every  eye  should  be  directed,  that  each  may  have  in 
full  view  the  great  and  gloi'ious  achievement  of  a  Church 
commensurate  with  the  land  in  which  we  dwell,  and  every 
heart  be  elevated  by  the  magnificent  aim  to  cover  with 
the  requisite  number  of  churches,  and,  with  God's  blessing 
on  the  means,  Christianity  to  educate,  and,  in  return  for 
our  performance  and  prayers,  to  Christianize  the  whole  of 
Scotland." 

It  is  very  plain,  from  all  this,  what  were  Chalmers's/ 
most  earnest  hopes  in  connection  with  the  Disruption. 
What  he  thought  of  was  not  the  triumph  of  a  sect.  Be- 
lieving, as  he  did,  that  it  was  the  great  stream  of  Evan^ 
gelical  life  that  had  been  flowing  through  the  Establish!- 
ment  which  was  now  diverted  into  a  new  channel,  he 
followed  in  thought  and  faith  its  future  course,  and  his 
argument,  in  effect,  was  this,  that  there  was  nothing  in  the 
circumstance  of  its  having  lost  the  support  of  the  State  to 


156    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

hinder  its  going  on  and  sweeping  over  the  whole  land. 
And  so  far  his  prognostications  have  been  fulfilled. 
There  is  no  district  of  the  country  so  poor  or  remote  that 
the  Free  Church  has  been  unable  to  sup^  ly  ordinances  to 
The  ministry  of  that  Church  has  grown  from  four 
hundred  and  seventy  to  over  one  thousand,  and  the 
Sustentation  Fund,  which  began  with  £74,0*00  a  year,  now 

/     yields  £176,000. 

\  In  the  speech  from  which  a  quotation  has  just  been 

given,  Chalmers  refers  to  an  occasion  on  which  he  had 
observed  an  incredulous  smile  pass  over  the  faces  of  his 
auditors.  He  alludes  to  the  "  Convocation,"  a  remark- 
able assembly  of  ministers  who  gathered  together  in 
November  1842,  to  consult  together  confidentially  about 
the  affairs  of  the  Church.  In  the  hearing  of  these  ministers 
he  unfolded  at  great  length  his  views  of  a  Sustentation 
Fund,  and  of  the  principles  on  which  he  looked  forward 
with  confidence  to  the  organization  of  a  Free  Disestablished 
Church.  Here  all  those  resources  became  available  which 
he  had  been  accumulating  from  the  time  when  he  began 
his  study  of  mathematics  and  of  political  economy. 

One  of  his  great  points  was  this, — the  power  of  littles. 
He  did  not  undervalue  the  large  contributions  of  the  rich, 
but  he  knew  that  these  must  necessarily  be  few  and  pre- 
carious. What  he  relied  upon  was  the  steady  giving  of 
the  many.  "Men,"  he  said,  "  in  their  hurried  and  whole- 
sale contemplation  of  things,  are  apt  to  be  carried  away 
by  generalities,  and  under  an  overwhelming  sense  of  an 
extreme  and  universal  helplessness  among  the  common 
people,  think  that  nothing  is  to  be  had  from  them.  The 
only  way  of  dislodging  and  dissipating  that  impression  is 
by  going  piecemeal  to  work,  and  making  the  actual  trial 
in  one  parish  or  vicinity  after  another." 


ORGANIZATIOX  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     157 

He  then  went  on  to  tell  of  a  clerical  friend  from  Skye, 
who  said  tliat  it  was  vain  to  hope  that  anything  could  be 
got  from  his  quarter,  but  who,  when  asked  if  a  penny  a 
week  might  not  be  expected  from  each  household,  answered, 
that  "if  I  came  down  to  such  a  nothing,  such  a  bagatelle 
as  that,  it  could  be  easily  aflforded." 

"Now,"  Chalmers  went  on  to  say,  "it  is  just  by  a  put- 
ting together  of  such  *  bagatelles '  that  I  arrive  at  my  con- 
clusions ;  and  I  therefore  repeat  that,  as  far  as  the  means 
are  concerned,  we  could  obtain — and  it  is  the  very  least 
and  lowest  computation  we  should  think  of  making — we 
could  obtain,  after  the  loss  of  all  our  endowments,  the  sum 
of  ^100,000  in  the  year  for  the  sup2:)ort  of  a  Christian 
ministry  in  Scotland,  without  sensible  encroachment  on  the 
comfort  of  any,  without  so  much  as  the  feeling  of  a  sacrifice." 

It  was  when  he  spoke  of  a  hundred  thousand  a  year  that . 
the  glint  of  incredulity  passed  over  his  audience.  The 
good  man,  they  all  felt,  was  indeed  in  Utopia.  But  it  is 
a  grand  testimony  to  the  far-seeing  sagacity  of  the  econo- 
mist that  all  that  he  predicted  has  come  more  than  true. 
The  end  was  not  accomjjlished  at  once.  Tlie  machine, 
before  it  got  into  thorough  working  order,  had  to  contend 
with  many  difficulties ;  and  the  heart  of  its  first  director 
was  sometimes  fretted  with  the  friction  which  these  diffi- 
culties produced.  But  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  his 
scheme  has  proved  a  magnificent  success ;  and,  more  than 
that,  that  the  whole  Protestant  world  has  benefited  by  it ! 
There  is  hardly  one  English  speaking  Church  which  has 
not  appropriated  the  very  name  he  suggested  for  his 
fund.  A  new  word  came  into  use  in  consequence  of  that 
famous  speech  of  his  in  the  Convocation ;  and  in  an  age 
when  disestablished  Churches  have  become,  and  are  likely 
to  become,  more  common,  it  is  important  that  so  many 


1  58    ORGAXIZATIOJT  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

valuable  Lints  exist  as  to  the  way  in  wliicli  such  Churches 
can  be  most  efficiently  organized. 

Of  course  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry  was  but  one 
among  the  many  things  which  required  to  be  attended  to 

Iat  this  time.  Six  hundred  congregations  were  suddenly 
placed  in  circumstances  requiring  church  accommodation, 
and  places  of  worship  of  any  description  could  not  be  pro- 
vided for  these  all  at  once.  Happily  the  summer  of  1843 
was  an  unusually  beautiful  one,  and  to  meet  in  the  open 
air  was,  as  a  rule,  not  at  all  an  intolerable  hardship.  /  The 
^ery  change  in  the  aspect  of  things  proved  beneficial. 
Ministers  who  had  sacrificed  their  all  for  conscience'  sake 
were  naturally  in  a  more  fervid  state  of  mind,  and  the 
people  heard  better.  So  that,  without  any  question,  the 
time  came  to  be  one  of  great  religious  revival.     The  event 

L which  broke  up  the  Church  of  Scotland  brought  a  new  life 
to  many  souls. 
I         Chalmers  was  then  living  in  Morningside,   and  for  a 
time  he  turned  his  own  house  into  a  church ;  "  and  per- 
I   haps  he  never  occupied  a  more  picturesque  position  than 
when,  planted  midway  up  the  staircase,  he  preached  to  a 
disjointed  congregation  scattered  into  different  rooms,  all 
of  whom  could  hear,  but  not  half  of  whom  could  see,  the 
/•    clergyman." 

He  also  made  an  extensive  tour  in  the  autumn  in  the 
interest  of  the  Sustentation  Fund.  On  that  occasion  his 
object  was  to  gather  around  him  the  actual  workers  for 
the  scheme  in  each  locality,  and  to  talk  to  them  in  a 
familiar  way  about  how  best  to  perform  the  service  they 
had  undertaken.  But  when  the  Sabbaths  came  round  he 
was  of  course  required  to  preach,  and  wherever  he  went 
crowds  came  to  hear  him.  On  one  of  those  days  he  was 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Aberdeen,  and  the  good  people  of 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     159 

that  city  would  gladly  have  had  him  conduct  worship  in 
their  largest  hall ;  but  he  preferred  "  a  rural  Sabbath,"  and 
accepted  the  invitation  to  preach  instead  in  a  tent  at 
Banchory. 

"  But  little  thought  I,"  said  he  himself,  in  afterwards 
recounting  his  experiences,  "  that,  notwithstanding  the 
day  and  the  hour,  and  even  the  rain  of  this  day,  there 
were  to  assemble  six  or  seven  thousand,  some  say  ten  thou- 
sand people ;  and  so  the  pulpit  had  to  be  carried  half  a 
mile  from  the  Free  Church  tent  to  the  front  door  of  Ban 
chory  House,  where  I  could  preach  under  cover,  with  a 
loliby  full  of  grandees  behind  me,  and  such  a  multitude 
before  me  as  presented  what  the  Opium-eater  calls  an  ocean 
of  human  faces.  The  people  occupied  all  the  gi-avel  before 
the  house,  and  all  the  grassy  lawn,  wet  as  it  was,  to  the 
trees,  whose  foliage  gave  back  the  sound,  so  that  the  echo 
came  back  upon  our  ears  and  prolonged  each  line  so  as  to 
compel  a  pause  from  the  precentor  in  a  way  that  was 
somewhat  ludicrous.  Nevertheless,  I  was  completely  heard  , 
and,  having  Mr.  Archibald,  a  probationer,  to  conduct  all 
but  the  sermon,  I  got  over  the  whole  with  marvellously 
little  fatigue.  The  open  air  in  front,  and  freedom  from 
all  heat  and  stifling,  made  it  far  easier  for  me  than  if  I 
had  been  in  the  tent." 

Dr,  Chalmers's  text  upon  this  occasion  was  his  favourite 
one  from  Isaiah  xxvii.  4,  5:  "Fury  is  not  in  me:  who 
would  set  the  briers  and  thorns  against  me  in  battle?  J 
would  go  through  them,  I  would  burn  them  together.  Or 
let  him  take  hold  of  my  strength,  that  he  may  make  peace 
\vith  me ;  and  he  shall  make  peace  with  me. "  "The  breath- 
less interest,"  says  Mr.  Tliomson,  "  with  which  the  people 
listened  was  very  striking ;  and  the  blessed  fruits  of  that 
discourse  will  all  be  known  only  at  the  great  day." 


160    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

The  remarkable  combination  of  qualities  in  Chalmers's 
character  never  came  out  more  strikingly  than  in  the  time 
of  which  we  are  now  speaking.  His  enthusiasm  stirred 
all  who  came  into  contact  with  it,  and  yet  his  practical 
sagacity  never  forsook  him  for  a  moment.  His  faith  in 
God  was  entire,  so  that  he  believed,  in  the  most  unaffected 
way,  that  He  would  provide  for  all  who  conscientiously 
tried  to  serve  him ;  but  this  confidence  never  tempted  him 
to  expect  miracles.  All  the  more  that  he  trusted  in  the 
certainty  of  a  providential  government  did  he  make  it  his 
aim  to  use  such  means  for  gaining  his  ends  as  wisdom 
pointed  out  to  be  suitable.  And  with  all  this  there 
mingled  the  genial  humour  which  saw  the  gi'otesque  side 
of  things  and  threw  his  audiences  at  times  into  convulsions 
of  laughter. 

Toward  the  close  of  each  session,  after  the  Disruption, 
he  was  accustomed  to  give  to  his  students  a  lecture  on 
*'  Economics."  On  one  of  these  occasions  he  told  the  story 
of  a  visit  he  had  paid  to  a  congregation  in  the  north,  which 
he  was  anxious  to  stir  up  to  greater  liberality.  This  story 
he  began  to  tell  with  the  utmost  gravity,  and  not  one  of 
his  auditors  had,  to  begin  with,  the  slightest  suspicion  that 
anything  ludicrous  was  to  come  out  of  it.  He  had,  he 
went  on  to  say,  a  meeting  with  the  ofhce-bearers,  and 
explained  to  them  with  great  fulness  and  explicitness  his 
famous  jjrinciple  of  "  the  power  of  littles."  By  the  help  of 
arithmetic  he  showed  that  if  a  penny  a  week  were  con- 
tributed by  so  many  people,  so  much  money  would  be 
raised  at  the  end  of  the  year ;  and  if  that  arrangement 
were  only  carried  out  throughout  the  entire  country,  the 
income  of  the  Church  would  amount  to  quite  a  fabulous 
sum.  Dealing,  as  he  believed  he  Avas,  with  minds  some- 
what slow  to  take  in  a  new  idea,  he  dwelt  upon  his  scheme 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH.     161 

at  considerable  length,  iterating  and  reiterating  the  prin- 
cipal points  in  it ;  and  at  the  close  he  came  away  with  the 
comfortable  conviction  that  he  had  made  a  distinct  and 
lasting  impression.  What  was  his  chagi'in,  however,  to 
hear  how  all  his  labour  had  been  viewed.  [Here,  as  the 
crisis  of  the  story  approached,  the  venerable  professor 
drew  himself  up,  as  if  he  were  going  to  utter  words  of 
strong  indignation,  while  his  eyes  twinkled  and  his  lips 
twitched.]  One  of  the  office-bearers  who  had  been  present 
was  asked  next  day  how  he  had  liked  the  meeting. 
"  Pretty  well,"  was  his  reply.  "  Doctor  Chalmers  is  nae 
doubt  a  clever  man  ;  but,  oh  !  he  is  unco  worldly  !  "  It 
may  be  imagined  that  for  some  minutes  after  this  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  class  was  nowhere.  The  loving-hearted  old 
man,  whose  life  had  been  one  long  act  of  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  Christ  and  the  good  of  his  fellow -men, 
could  well  afford  to  tell  to  his  students  such  a  tale  against 
himself;  and  the  rehearsal  of  it  served  a  purpose,  for  many  a 
time  since  has  the  story  been  employed  to  rebuke  the  pseudo- 
spirituality  of  those  who  pretend  to  think  it  a  degi-adation 
to  allude  to  the  outward  business  of  the  house  of  the  Lord. 
Chalmers's  own  special  work  was  at  once  resumed  by 
him  when  the  winter  session  in  November  came  round. 
He  retired,  of  course  (in  comj^any  with  Dr.  Welsh)  from 
the  University ;  but  temporary  premises  in  George  Street 
having  been  secured  for  class-rooms,  he  began  to  lecture 
there  to  those  students  who  desired  to  study  for  the  Free 
Church.  Of  the  New  College  thus  instituted  he  was  made 
the  Principal,  his  colleagues  being  Dr.  Welsh,  for  church 
history  ;  Dr.  Cunningham,  for  apologetics  ;  and  Dr.  Black, 
for  Biblical  criticism.  The  fire  of  his  earlier  years  had  in 
some  degree  abated,  but  his  lectures  were  most  interesting, 
stimulating,  and  instructive ;  and  now  and  again  the  old 

(63G)  1 1 


162    ORGANIZATION  OF  A  FREE  DISESTABLISHED  CHURCH. 

flame  blazed  out  afresh,  as  when  any  new  subject  attracted 
him  and  he  followed  the  German  plan  of  devoting  to  it  a 
short  special  course. 

Thus,  as  the  originator  of  its  system  of  finance,  as  an 
active  helper  in  the  rebuilding  of  the  broken  walls,  as 
the  president  of  its  seminary  for  the  training  of  its 
future  ministry,  and  in  innumerable  other  ways,  he  con- 
tributed effectively  to  the  formation  of  a  free  disestablished 
Church. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

LAST  YEARS. 

]HEE-E  is  that  scatteretli,  and  yet  increasetli. ' 
So  there  is  that  divideth,  and  it  tendeth  to 
unity.  So  was  it  with  the  Disruption. 
Blamed  by  many  as  a  schismatic  act,  a  great 
prompter  to  and  promoter  of  division,  no  public  incident 
of  our  times  has  done  more  to  bring  together  into  one  the 
scattered  Churches  of  the  Reformation." 

Thus  writes  Dr.  Hanna ;  and  there  are  no  truer  words 
iu  all  his  admirable  biography. 

Certainly  this  is  the  fact,  at  any  rate,  that  Chalmers 
was  not  made  narrower  by  the  Disruption.  It  would 
have  been  difficult  for  him  indeed  to  become  so  in  view  of 
the  exi^eriences  he  had  to  go  through.  As  Moderator,  it 
fell  to  him  to  receive  the  expressions  of  sympathy  which 
were  sent  to  the  Free  Church,  immediately  after  its  estab- 
lishment, by  other  commurdons ;  and  when  post  after  post 
brought  him  addresses  and  resolutions  from  Churches,  of 
the  very  existence  of  some  of  which  he  was  before 
unaware,  he  was  gratified  beyond  measure. 

*'  I  have  felt,"  said  he,  "  exceedingly  delighted  with 
these  communications.  I  must  say  that  I  consider  it  as 
infinitely  more  characteristic  of  the  religion  which  we  pro- 
fess— the  religion  of  peace  and  charity — that  instead  of 


16-i  LAST   YEARS. 

each  denomination  sitting  aloft  and  apart  upon  its  own 
hill,  and  frowning  upon  each  other  from  their  respective 
orbits,  they  should  hold  kindly  and  mutual  converse, 
and  see  each  other  eye  to  eye,  while  they  will  discern,  to 
their  mutual  astonishment,  if  not  how  thoroughly,  at  least 

how  substantially  they  are  at  one Now  is  the  time  to 

rally  about  the  common  standard  of  all  that  is  pure  and 
vital  in  Protestantism." 

In  the  Assembly  of  1845,  he  had  a  most  interesting 
opportunity  of  giving  expression  again  to  similar  senti- 
ments. Merle  D'Aubigne,  the  historian,  along  with 
Frederic  Monod  of  Paris  and  Mr.  Kuntze  of  Berlin,  had 
come  to  represent  their  re.spective  Churches  as  deputies  to 
the  Free  Church,  and  Dr.  Chalmers  undertook  to  introduce 
the  distinguished  foreigners  to  the  Assembly.  The  scene 
will  always  be  remembered  by  those  who  witnessed  it. 
The  great  hall  at  Canonmills  was  crowded  to  the  ceiling 
from  end  to  end,  and  D'Aubigne,  who  wrote  afterwards  an 
account  of  his  reception,  tells  that  when  Chalmers  appeared, 
"the  whole  audience  rose,  shouted,  clapped  their  hands, 
and  Wcved  hats  and  handkerchiefs. '^ 

Rising,  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  speak,  with  that 
air  of  unobtrusive  and  unaffected  simplicity  which  always 
sat  upon  him  so  gi'acefully,  he  said,  "  Tlie  high  and 
honourable  office  has  been  assigned  to  me  of  announcing 
the  presence  in  this  Assembly  of  certain  evangelical  and 
much  esteemed  ministers  from  various  places  on  the  Con- 
tinent. At  the  present  juncture  of  affairs,  I  cannot  but 
regard  the  appearance  of  such  men  amongst  us  as  providen- 
tial. If  ever  there  was  a  time  when  the  friends  of  a  scri}!- 
tural  faith  and  a  free  gospel  should  draw  closer  together, 
surely  it  is  now,  when  the  spiritual  tyranny  of  former  days 
is   raising    its   head   again,   and    threatens  to   resume  its 


LAST  YEARS.  165 

ancient  lordship  over  the  consciences  of  men.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  for  the  maintenance  of  our  liberty  we  may  again 
be  called  upon  for  the  same  sacrifices,  for  the  same 
struggles  of  principle  with  power,  for  the  same  heartfelt 
devotion  to  a  noble  cause,  for  the  same  lofty  and  intrepid 
doings  on  the  side  of  Christian  principle,  which  were  put 
forth  in  Germany,  under  the  chamjiionship  of  one  whom  I 
need  not  name,  because  for  three  centuries  he  has  been 
known  and  revered  over  all  Christendom  as  the  hero  of 
the  Reformation.  And,  sir,  I  am  delighted  to  think — it 
makes  me  feel  as  if  I  were  now  at  the  most  interesting 
moment  of  my  existence,  when  I  can  point  to  one  of  those 
strangers  whom,  in  this  great  Assembly,  I  need  as  little  to 
name — who  is  universally  known  as  the  historian  of  the 
Reformation." 

Dr.  Chalmers  proceeded  then  to  speak  of  the  works 
of  M.  Merle  and  of  the  many  interesting  ties  which 
bound  together  Geneva  and  Scotland.  But  the  personal 
and  the  national  were  soon  lost  in  a  wdder  topic.  "I  hail," 
said  he,  "the  footsteps  of  those  friends  from  the  Continent, 
because  I  know  that  one,  and  I  believe  that  all  of  them, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  apostles  of  Christian  union  ;  and  I 
do  hope  that  their  presence  among  us,  and  their  conversa- 
tion with  the  ministers  of  various  denominations,  will  have 
the  effect  of  expediting  that  sacred  cause  in  this  country. 
I  trust  you  will  not  charge  me  with  over -liberality  if  I 
say,  as  I  do  from  my  conscience,  that  among  the  great 
majority  of  evangelical  dissenters  in  this  country  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  topics  of  difference  which  I  do  not  regard  as 
so  many  men  of  straw ;  and  I  shall  be  exceedingly  delighted 
if  these  gentlemen  get  the  heads  of  the  various  denomina- 
tions to  meet  together,  and  consent  to  make  a  bonfire  of 
them. " 


166  LAST  YEARS. 

These  aspirations  did  not  end  altogether  in  words.  Out  of 
the  feelings  which  they  awakened,  and  which  appeared 
simultaneously  in  many  minds,  sprang  an  organization 
which  still  exists — the  Evangelical  Alliance.  It  has  not 
realized  all  the  expectations  which  were  formed  in  regard 
to  it.  What  Chalmers  dreaded  has  to  some  extent  come 
about,  at  least  so  far  as  its  operations  at  home  are  con- 
cerned. There  have  been  "large  periodical  assemblages, 
where  first-rate  speakers  have  made  eloquent  demonstra- 
tions, while  there  has  been  on  the  whole  a  lack  of  the 
materials  of  real  business,"  At  the  same  time,  it  has  done 
noble  service  in  its  day,  and  promises  to  do  still  more ;  and 
we  may  yet  see  it  fulfilling  Chalmers's  ideal — that,  first,  of  a 
great  anti-Popish  association,  and,  second,  of  a  great  home 
mission. 

About  the  last  point  he  was  particularly  solicitous, 
believing,  as  he  did,  that  "  to  walk  together  in  the  field  of 
Christian  philanthropy  is  a  likely  preparation  for  thinking 
together  on  the  questions  of  the  Christian  faith."  This 
was  but  one  side  of  perhaps  his  favourite  maxim,  that 
unto  the  upright  light  arises  in  the  darkness.  Holding,  as 
he  did  emphatically  with  Vinet,  that  "  the  axioms  of  men 
innocent  have  become  the  problems  of  men  fallen,"  he  often 
taught  that  the  surest  road  to  right  thinking  was  right 
doing ;  and  hence,  in  urging  active  co-operation  among 
professing  Christians  about  all  good  things,  he  had  no 
doubt  that  he  was  recommending  the  method  by  which 
unity  could  soonest  be  reached. 

"  Let  us,"  he  pled,  "  be  one  in  well-doing ;  and  this, 
wherever  there  is  real  sincerity  and  right  good  earnest, 
will  prove  the  highroad  to  being  one  in  sentiment.  A 
oneness  in  conduct  will  often  lead  to  an  essential  oneness 
of  creed ;  for  the  reflex  influence  of  the  former  upon  the 


LAST  YEARS.  167 

latter  is  far  greater  than  i:)erhaps  logicians  and  controver- 
sialists in  theology  are  willing  to  allow.  And  so  we  may 
speed  onward  the  accomplishment  of  our  blessed  Saviour's 
prayer — even  that  palpable  unity  among  Christians  which 
he  has  announced  as  an  indispensable  stepping-stone  to  the 
world's  regeneration." 

His  hopes  in  this  connection  were  not  fulfilled.  The 
Alliance  became  without  any  difficulty  an  Anti-Popish 
Association ;  but  when  it  began  to  face  the  question  of  the 
reclamation  of  the  waste  places  at  home  from  heathenism, 
it  was  met  by  difficulties  arising  from  the  presence  of 
organizations  already  in  the  field. 

But  Chalmers's  mind,  having  secured  rest  from  contro- 
versy, was  now  turning  intently  again  toward  old  interests. 
The  spiritual  destitution  of  the  country  was  what  most 
oppressed  him,  and  he  could  not  assent  to  give  over  plan- 
ning for  the  relief  of  that  merely  because  he  was  dis- 
appointed of  help  in  one  particular  quarter.  If  Christian 
men  of  all  denominations  could  not  see  their  way  to  join 
in  home  missionary  effort,  he  must,  if  necessary,  throw 
himself  into  the  breach  single-handed.  And  this  was  prac- 
tically what  he  did. 

Singling  out  what  was  at  the  time  one  of  the  worst 
districts  of  Edinburgh — that  of  the  West  Port — he  resolved 
to  devote  his  remaining  strength  to  its  evangelization.  In 
doing  this,  he  had  more  in  view  than  the  good  of  that  one 
locality.  He  wished  to  "  work  off  one  model  or  normal 
specimen  of  the  process  by  which  a  single  locality  may  be 
reclaimed  from  the  wilderness,"  and  then  to  press  it  on  the 
imitation  of  other  philanthropists. 

As  a  preparation  for  his  work,  he  delivered  four  public 
lectures  in  Edinburgh,  in  which  he  showed  the  advantages 
of  the  territorial  system,  and  in  which  also  he  proclaimed 


168  LAST  YEARS. 

in  an  emphatic  way  the  catholicity  of  the  spirit  by  which 
he  was  animated.  Because  he  was  a  Free  Churchman,  it 
was  of  course  most  natural  and  convenient  that  he  should 
employ  Free  Church  agencies ;  but  he  said,  with  great 
vehemence  of  expression,  "Wlio  cares  about  the  Free 
Church,  compared  with  the  Christian  good  of  the  people  of 
Scotland  1  Who  cares  about  any  Church,  but  as  an  instru- 
ment of  Christian  good?  for,  be  assured  that  the  moral 
and  religious  well-being  of  the  population  is  of  infinitely 
higher  importance  than  the  advancement  of  any  sect." 

These  are  the  sentiments  we  have  met  with  at  all  points 
in  his  history.  A  Church  to  him  was  not  an  end  but  a 
means ;  and  it  at  once  lost  in  his  eyes  the  very  reason  of 
its  existence,  when,  either  through  its  own  ineflBciency,  or 
through  the  restraints  put  upon  it  from  without,  it  became 
incapable  of  contributing  as  it  should  to  the  promotion  of 
evangelical  religion. 

When  the  West  Port  statistics  were  taken  up,  the  dis- 
trict was  found  to  be  in  a  deplorable  state.  "  Out  of  a 
gross  population  of  two  thousand,  three-fourths  of  the 
whole,  or  about  fifteen  hundred  of  the  inhabitants,  were 
living — within  sound  of  many  a  Sabbath  bell,  and  with 
abundance  of  contiguous  church  accommodation — lost  to  all 
the  habits  and  all  the  decencies  of  the  Christian  life." 

Throwing  himself  into  this  region,  he  set  agoing  all  the 
machinery  which,  from  his  experience  in  Glasgow,  he  knew 
to  be  indispensable  ;  and  the  success  which  ere  long  attended 
his  eflforts  was  most  cheering.  Within  less  than  three 
years  he  was  able  to  say  to  Mr.  Tasker,  his  invaluable 
coadjutor  in  the  work,  and  the  first  minister  of  the  terri- 
tory, "  I  have  got  now  the  desire  of  my  heart— the  church 
is  finished,  the  schools  are  flourishing,  our  ecclesiastical 
machinery   is  about  complete,   and  all   in  good   working 


LAST  YEARS.  169 

order.  God  has  indeed  heard  my  prayer,  and  I  coukl  now 
lay  down  my  head  in  peace  and  die." 

A  day  later  he  wrote  thus  to  a  friend  in  New  York :  "  I 
wish  to  communicate  what  to  me  is  the  most  joyful  event  of 
my  life.  I  have  been  intent  for  thirty  years  on  the  com- 
pletion of  a  territorial  experiment,  and  I  have  now  to  bless 
God  for  the  consummation  of  it.  Our  church  was  opened 
on  the  19th  of  February,  and  in  one  month  my  anxieties 
respecting  an  attendance  have  been  set  at  rest.  Five- 
sixths  of  the  sittings  have  been  let ;  but  the  best  part  of 
it  is,  that  three-fourths  of  these  are  from  the  West  Port,  a 
locality  which,  two  years  ago,  had  not  one  in  ten  church- 
goers from  the  whole  population.  I  jjresided  myself  on 
Sabbath  last  over  its  first  sacrament.  There  were  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  communicants,  and  one  hundred  of 
them  from  the  West  Port." 

The  work  thus  auspiciously  begun  did  not  turn  out  to 
be  of  an  evanescent  character.  The  congregation  continued 
steadily  to  grow,  until,  in  1879,  it  was  able  to  report  a 
membership  of  over  eleven  hundred. 

In  such  quiet  walks  of  usefulness  did  Chalmers  proceed, 
almost  without  interruption,  till  his  death.  He  met  with 
trials  and  disappointments,  as  was  to  have  been  expected, 
for  the  millennium  had  not  come  in  his  day.  There  were 
obstinate  men,  for  example,  who  would  not  listen  to  reason 
on  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  economics,  and  he  was  rather 
disheartened  at  times  when  he  thought  of  the  prospects  of 
practical  Voluntaryism.  But  if  he  had  lived  long  enough 
he  would  have  seen  his  principles  accepted,  and  conse- 
quences following  from  them  which  would  have  brightened 
his  whole  horizon.  And  as  it  was,  these  disappointments 
did  not  in  any  way  affect  injviriously  the  sweetness  of  his  na- 
ture, or  disturb  his  relation  to  the  great  testimony  of  his  life. 


170  LAST  YEARS. 

Once  again  only  was  he  called  forth  to  discharge  a  public 
duty  under  the  eye  of  the  whole  nation. 

Just  as  before  the  Disruption  there  were  some  who 
believed  that  nobody  would  *'  go  out,"  so  after  that  event 
there  were  some  v/ho  were  fully  jiersuaded  that  those 
who  went  out  would  speedily  return.  Among  these  last 
were  certain  great  landholders,  like  the  Dukes  of  Suther- 
land and  Buccleuch,  who,  concluding  that  all  that  was 
wanted  to  suppress  the  Free  Church  was  a  little  Jirmness, 
refused  to  grant  sites  for  building  purposes  to  the  outed 
congregations  on  their  estates.  This  course  was  followed 
by  so  many,  and  the  hardships  inflicted  grew  so  serious, 
that  at  last  Parliament  was  moved  to  agree  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Committee  of  Inquiry. 

Among  other  witnesses,  Chalmers  was  summoned  to  give 
evidence,  and,  with  this  object  in  view,  he  went  up  to 
London  on  the  7th  of  May  1847. 

What  he  said  on  this  occasion  is  important  on  this 
account,  that  a  singular  persuasion  exists  in  certain  quarters 
that  he  altered  his  views  of  things  at  the  last,  and  became 
convinced  that  even  a  bound  and  restricted  established 
Church  is  better  than  one  which  is  disestablished  but  free. 
Rumours  of  a  like  sort  have  always  been  rife  about  great 
men  who  have  broken  away  from  the  established  order  of 
things.  How  often,  for  instance,  has  the  world  been  told 
of  the  "recantation"  of  Dr.  Dollinger.  It  is  natural  to 
wish  to  break  down  the  testimony  of  such  men,  but  it 
ought  perhaps  to  be  more  frequently  remembered  that  the 
interests  of  morality  suffer  more  than  the  cause  of  a  party 
gains  when  a  man  is,  without  any  substantial  excuse, 
represented  as  having  turned  his  back  in  old  age  upon  the 
most  earnest  teachings  of  his  previous  life. 

The  same  month  which  saw  Chalmers  in  the  presence  of 


LAST  YEARS.  171 

the  Sites  Committee  saw  him  also  called  away  to  answer  for 
himself  at  a  higher  tribunal ;  and  the  following  sentences, 
therefore,  may  well  be  taken  as  expressing  his  final  judg- 
ment upon  the  great  question  which  rent  the  Church  of 
Scotland  asunder : — 

"  It  has  been  stated  in  this  Committee  that  the  points 
upon  which  the  Free  Church  differ  from  the  Established 
Church  are  mere  points  of  technicality,  and  that  they  have 
no  real  substance  in  them  ;  will  you  state  what  you  con- 
sider to  be  the  distinctive  principle  between  the  Free  Church 
and  the  Established  Church  ? — The  distinctive  principle  some 
people  call  'spiritual  independence.'  I  think  that  there  is 
a  difference  of  nomenclature  between  the  English  and 
Scotch,  and  that  our  cause  is  a  good  deal  misunderstood 
in  virtue  of  that.  1  would  say  that  the  final  jurisdiction 
of  ecclesiastical  courts  in  things  sacred  is  the  great  prin- 
ciple upon  which  we  have  gone  out,  that  that  final  juris- 
diction has  been  violated,  and  that  it  is  not  a  capricious 
or  unheard-of  novelty.  It  has  been  held  in  Scotland  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  It  was  the  great  question  be- 
tween the  Jameses  and  Charleses  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Scottish  people  on  the  other,  who  called  it  the  Headship 
of  Christ  —  the  term  given  to  the  principle  when  looked 
to  in  a  religious  light.  But  when  looked  to  constitu- 
tionally, it  is  termed  the  final  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical courts  or  Church  courts  in  things  sacred,  as  distinct 
from  things  civil.  Now,  it  is  sometimes  expressed  in  this 
way  by  a  Scotchman.  He  speaks  of  it  as  the  supremacy 
of  the  Church  over  all  things  ecclesiastical,  which  is  very 
apt  to  mislead  the  understanding  of  Englishmen,  because 
I  presume  that  any  question  connected  with  the  minis- 
terial ofiice,  and  which  related  to  the  *  civilia '  of  that  office, 
would  in  England  be  called  an  ecclesiastical  cause,  and  is 


172  LAST  YEARS. 

decided  by  the  civil  courts.  Now,  there  is  a  distinction  in 
the  very  constitution  of  our  courts  to  every  understanding 
which  makes  this  matter  clear  with  us.  There  are  eccle- 
siastical courts  that  are  constituted  of  the  kirk-session, 
the  Presbytery,  the  Synod,  and  General  Assembly ;  and 
there  are  civil  courts.  We  call  matters  decided  by  those 
courts  ecclesiastical  matters,  because  our  habit  has  been 
all  along  to  refer  things  sacred  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts, 
and  which  never  passed  from  the  ecclesiastical  courts  to 
the  civil  courts.  Those  are  things  sacred,  but  our  call- 
ing them  things  ecclesiastical  is  very  apt  to  mislead  Eng- 
lish people,  under  the  idea  that  we  claim  the  supremacy 
over  the  'civilia'  as  well  as  the  'sacra'  of  the  minis- 
terial office.  Now,  there  is  nothing  more  distinct  in  a 
Scotch  mind  than  the  proper  function  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical court,  which  is  to  take  up  things  sacred,  and  the 
proper  function  of  the  civil  court,  which  is  to  take  up 
things  secular  connected  with  the  ministerial  office,  such 
as  glebe,  stipend,  church  or  place  of  worship,  and  the 
manse  or  parsonage  house,  and  other  matters  of  the  same 
kind  which  might  be  very  easily  enumerated. 

"  Do  you  think  that  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  at 
present  established  by  law,  have  recognized  on  the  part  of 
the  State  a  jurisdiction  in  matters  spiritual  and  sacred, 
and  against  which  the  people  of  Scotland  have  strongly 
contended  in  times  past? — Yes,  I  think  they  have  com- 
pletely obliterated  that  line  of  demarcation  which  we  always 
thought  divided  the  civil  from  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 

"  In  so  crossing  that  line  of  demarcation  they  have 
adopted  the  principles  which  are  generally  known  in  Scot- 
land by  the  name  of  Erastian  principles? — Yes." 

During  this  his  last  visit  to  London,  Chalmers  seems  to 


LAST  YEARS.  173 

have  enjoyed  himself  thoroughly.  He  made  several  new 
acquaintances,  such  as  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Sir 
Charles  Lyell.  He  took  a  great  delight  in  visiting  the 
Athenaeum,  of  which  he  had  been  admitted  a  member. 
He  preached  twice — once  in  London  in  a  Presbyterian 
church,  and  again  in  Gloucestershire  in  an  Independent 
chapel ;  and  in  his  letters  home,  giving  an  account  of  in- 
tercourse with  relatives  and  friends,  he  manifested  a  light- 
someness  which  seemed  to  promise  the  prol)ability  of  years 
of  active  service.  Among  the  calls  he  made  in  London 
was  one  on  Thomas  Carlyle.  "I  had,"  he  says,  "lost  all 
recollection  of  him,  though  he  told  me  of  three  interviews, 
and  having  breakfasted  with  me  in  Glasgow.  A  strong- 
featured  man,  and  of  strong  sense.  We  were  most  cordial 
and  coalescing,  and  he  very  complimentary  and  pleasant ; 
but  his  talk  was  not  at  all  Carlylish — much  rather  the 
plain  and  manly  conversation  of  good  ordinai-y  common 
sense,  with  a  deal  of  hearty  laughing  on  both  sides.  The 
points  on  which  I  was  most  interested  were  his  approval 
of  my  territorial  system,  and  his  eulogy  on  direct  think- 
ing, to  the  utter  disparagement  of  those  subjective  philo- 
sophers who  are  constantly  thinking  upon  thinking." 

This  was  written  on  May  14.  On  the  30th  of  the  same 
month  he  retired  to  his  room  in  his  own  house  at  Morning- 
side,  after  bidding  his  family  a  genial  good-night.  "  I 
never  saw  him  happier,"  writes  one  who  happened  to  be 
his  guest  that  evening.  "  Christian  benevolence  beamed 
from  his  countenance,  sparkled  in  his  eye,  and  played  upon 
his  lips."  Next  morning  he  did  not  appear  as  usual,  and 
hearing  no  sign  of  movement  within  the  apartment,  a 
member  of  his  household  entered,  opened  the  shutters, 
drew  aside  the  curtain,  and  saw  that  he  was  dead  ! 


CHAPTER  XII. 


A  BAC^OOK. 


F  any  one  really  wants  to  know  what  manner 
of  man  Chalmers  was,  he  must  study  his 
'  Daily  Scriptui'e  Readings'  and  his  '  Horse 
Sabbaticse.'  " 

So  said  lately  one  of  the  men  who  sat  at  his  feet  in  St. 
Andrews  and  Edinburgh,  and  who,  like  a  good  many 
others  still  surviving,  cherish  affectionately  the  recollection 
not  of  their  great  master's  eloquence  merely,  or  even  chiefly, 
but  of  his  fervid  and  unaffected  piety.  When  a  contro- 
versy is  proceeding  involving  even  fundamental  matters, 
the  question  of  its  practical  effects  upon  those  who  engage 
in  it  will  always  be  determined  by  the  extent  to  which 
they  maintain  a  personal  intercourse  with  God.  All  con- 
flicts tend  to  grow  more  or  less  bitter,  and  during  their 
continuanjgje  things  are  apt  to  be  said  which  in  calmer 
moments  are  regretted.  How  Chalmers  was  enabled  to 
fight  the  battle  which  issued  in  the  blighting  of  so  many 
of  his  hopes,  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  little  that  was  pain- 
ful behind,  is  explained  in  the  private  diary  which  he  kept 
contemporaneously.  There  we  see  what  was  his  resource 
in  all  trouble,  and  what  were  the  deepest  motives  which 
influenced  him  throughout  his  public  life.  Men  of  the 
world  might  accuse  him  of  having  crooked   purposes  to 


A  BACKLOOK.  175 

serve,  but  he  could  conceal  nothing  from  God;  and  in 
these  most  unmistakably  genuine  confessions  we  see  the 
undisguised  workings  of  an  honest  and  spiritually  enlight- 
ened soul. 

Suppose  Chalmers  had  not  been  arrested,  like  Saul,  to 
be  used  in  the  interest  of  the  gospel,  but  had  been  left  to 
pursue  the  course  which  he  first  took  up,  what  would 
have  been  the  character  of  his  life  ?  It  is,  perhaps,  vain 
to  speculate ;  but  we  may  so  far  entertain  the  question 
for  a  moment,  in  order  that  we  may  the  better  realize,  in 
connection  with  his  history,  our  indebtedness  to  divine 
grace. 

That  he  was  a  man  of  the  highest  order  of  mind — in 
other  words,  that  he  possessed  the  quality  of  genius — can- 
not be  doubted  by  any  one  who  has  made  his  biography  a 
study.  He  beheld  all  things  with  an  open  face — that  is, 
he  saw  all  around  him  with  his  own  eyes,  not  with  the 
eyes  of  others.  Supporting  this  faculty  of  observation 
was  one  of  insight.  He  noticed  with  i-apidity  similarities, 
contrasts,  analogies ;  and  hence  he  seldom  wrote  or  spoke 
about  anything  without  suggesting  some  new  thought  about 
it,  or  putting  it  in  a  new  light.  Originality  was  a  feature 
in  all  his  writings,  whether  he  discoursed  on  the  stars,  or 
economics,  or  religion.  He  had  in  him,  therefore,  a  natural 
force  which  could  never  have  been  content  to  lie  quiescent, 
or  to  move  inconspicuously  in  commonplace  channels. 

"We  may  assume,  then,  that  the  world  would  have  heard 
of  him,  even  if  he  had  never  become  a  preacher.  But 
what  sort  of  reputation  would  he  have  achieved  in  that 
easel  He  would  have  become,  probably,  a  great  mathe- 
matician or  scientist ;  and  as  it  was  not  in  his  nature  to  do 
things  by  halves,  we  should  have  seen  him  taking  the  lead 
at  congresses,  discussing  the  origin  of  matter,  or  fighting, 


176  A  BACKLOOK. 

as  if  the  welfare  of  the  world  depended  on  it,  for  some 
knotty  point  connected  with  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic. 
Perhaps  —  who  knows?  —  something  more  serious  might 
have  happened.  The  relation  of  a  mind  like  his  to  Chris- 
tianity could  not  be  always  that  of  indifference  or  neu- 
trality. If  he  had  not  been  moved  to  come  over  to  its  side, 
he  might  have  been  led  to  lift  up  his  hand  against  it,  and 
so  to  the  hostile  forces  of  the  present  day  might  have  been 
added  the  element  of  a  soul  which,  whether  for  good  or 
for  evil,  would  be  always  influential. 

The  great  lesson  of  Chalmers's  life,  then,  is  the  same  as 
that  which  is  suggested  by  the  story  of  the  conversion  of 
Saul  of  Tarsus.  God  needed  a  man  to  roll  back  the  tide 
of  irreligion,  and  to  make  his  Church  in  Scotland  better 
serve  its  ends ;  and  the  man  was  found  among  that  very 
class  of  ministers  (the  Moderates)  who  were  most  unfriendly 
to  the  supernatui'al  in  religion.  Hence  his  call  was  a  great 
act  of  grace. 

What  he  would  have  done  had  not  God  found  him,  we 
can  only  guess.  What  he  did  accomplish,  in  consequence 
of  his  being  found  of  God,  is  matter  of  history.  That 
divine  touch,  which  altered  the  direction  of  his  life,  made 
him  a  lasting  blessing  to  his  country  ;  and  as  we  glance 
back  upon  his  career,  and  see  what  grace  enabled  him  to 
do,  we  are  led  anew  to  think  what  a  bright  new  century 
there  would  be  for  Scotland  if  the  Spirit  were  to  exercise 
His  sovereign  power  and  divert  some  of  the  energy  now 
given  to  the  world  into  the  channel  of  the  gospel. 


»  THE   END. 

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